Labor ministry campaign targets hiring discrimination at 12 sites nationwide

The labor ministry said Tuesday that a month-long campaign against employment discrimination will open at 12 locations nationwide in November, organized by six regional discrimination-improvement centers under the Korea Labor Foundation.

The campaign marks the 10th Employment Discrimination Prevention Emphasis Month. The centers are running the events jointly with regional labor-management-civil society councils, labor rights centers, local branches of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and local governments.

The schedule begins Tuesday with events at Kongju National University's culture and sports hall and the North Gyeongsang East Employers Association. Four more follow on Wednesday at the Gasan Digital Complex, a SK hynix construction site in Yongin, the Dangjin sports complex and the Huvis sports field, before the campaign closes on Nov. 20 at the Jinju Pyeonggeo social welfare center.

The foundation has operated the six centers in Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, South Gyeongsang and North Jeolla since 2010, providing diagnosis, counseling and training on preventing and correcting discrimination to workplaces and workers in non-regular employment. It also plans to select 10 workplaces that have built discrimination-free environments after undergoing an employment discrimination diagnosis in the past two years, with awards from the employment and labor minister and the foundation's secretary-general at a Dec. 1 ceremony.

"Creating a discrimination-free workplace requires the active interest not only of employers but of members of the local community," foundation Secretary-General Park Jong-pil said. "We will do our best so that awareness of preventing employment discrimination can spread to every corner of the regions through this 10th Employment Discrimination Prevention Emphasis Month."