Hanwha Aerospace Apologizes Over Discriminatory Hiring Guidelines

Hanwha Aerospace has issued a formal apology over an internal guideline for hiring experienced workers that included restrictions based on applicants’ age and educational background, promising disciplinary action and measures to prevent a recurrence.

Chief Executive Lee Boo-hwan said in a statement posted on the company’s website Sunday that such criteria should never have appeared in a recruitment document. He said limiting opportunities on the basis of personal characteristics unrelated to job performance violated the company’s stated principles of open recruitment and fair access to employment.

The controversy has also drawn government scrutiny. The Ministry of Employment and Labor began supervision on Sept. 16 after allegations emerged that Hanwha Aerospace had prepared a guideline restricting eligible candidates by age and university background and distributed it to a human resources executive and recruitment personnel in individual business divisions.

According to the company, Lee learned last month that an employee in charge of human resources had drafted the guideline identifying particular universities and age groups. He then sent an email in early September to human resources staff and business unit leaders warning that inappropriate hiring practices would not be tolerated. The company characterized the document as the unauthorized conduct of an individual employee and said the disputed criteria had never been implemented. It also maintained that its experienced-worker recruitment processes have continued to consider candidates from a range of schools and age groups.

Hanwha Aerospace said the person responsible for preparing and distributing the guideline has been referred to a personnel committee and that disciplinary proceedings are under way. Lee said the document had been circulated without adequate internal consultation or review, describing that failure as a clear organizational error.

The defense and aerospace company now plans to examine its recruitment procedures closely and make comprehensive changes if additional problems are identified. It will also strengthen fair-hiring training for employees in an effort to establish a workplace culture that rejects discriminatory recruitment.

Lee described fair hiring as a basic obligation that companies owe society and said Hanwha Aerospace would treat the case as a serious lesson. The response places attention not only on the disputed document but also on the company’s internal controls, including how recruitment standards are drafted, reviewed and communicated across business units. The effectiveness of the promised reforms will depend on whether the company converts its stated principles into verifiable safeguards throughout the hiring process.