고용상에서 ‘연령 요소’에 의한 차별

The discrimination prohibition system in employment is considered as one of the most important means to achieve equality in employment. Age discrimination in employment has been practiced by limiting age in the process of employment. A typical example of age discrimination is to set up a maximum age for job application. However, if the age discrimination is based on certain rationale, it would not be considered as discrimination in employment such as limiting age to improve employment or bona fide occupational qualification, and to protect the elderly in the process of promoting their employment. In order to apply reasonable age discrimination, it is required to meet the goal of equality in employment and to establish objective and detailed guidelines for such practice. In addition, in the case of reasonable discrimination in employment, it must be considered the interest or equality of individuals that are influenced or unprotected by reasonable age discrimination. Age and age-related factors can be used to determine wage, long-service allowance, seniority-based promotion, promotion based on the term of service, and retirement, which are considered as the rationale of reasonable age discrimination, because such cases meet the goals and needs, and the procedural equality in employment. As a result, those cases are not the age discriminatory practices. However, the following can still be considered as age discriminatory practices : limiting age for new hiring, applying age in the salary peak system, using age as a screening factor for training and education opportunities, and laying off employees based on age without considering other factors.