Hanwha Aerospace apologizes over controversial hiring guidelines

Hanwha Aerospace has issued an apology for its hiring guidelines that discriminated against experienced applicants based on age and educational background. In a statement on the company website, CEO Lee Boo-hwan expressed his regret, stating that it was unacceptable to limit opportunities for applicants due to personal attributes unrelated to job performance. He emphasized that there should never have been guidelines restricting applicants based on factors like education and age.

The labor ministry began an investigation on September 16 following allegations that Hanwha Aerospace had prepared and distributed guidelines specifying age ranges and preferred universities for experienced-hire positions to human resources executives and hiring managers. Lee acknowledged that these guidelines "directly violated" the company's principles of open hiring and equal opportunity.

He emphasized that he took the matter very seriously, describing the incident as a "clear failure on our part" due to incorrect guidelines being distributed to the wrong individuals.