Hyundai hires female auto technicians in South Korea—for the first time

Article content

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Hyundai hires female auto technicians in South Korea—for the first time Back to video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

It also marks the first time they’ve allowed females to apply for a technician role since their inception in 1967, as per the Korea Metal Workers’ Union on Monday. Prior to this, the brand did technically allow women to work as technicians if they were brought on by subcontractors, labelling them as temporary employees. This changed in 2012 when the Korean Supreme Court wiped out the policy.

Currently, women represent only two per cent of 28,000 technicians in Korea, comprised of primarily former temporary workers upgraded to regular employees, as per Kim Min Jung, the executive director of women’s activities at the union.  

When these positions were posted on the Hyundai website, unions and activists encouraged Hyundai to bolster the amount of women employed in Korea’s male-dominated society. Looking forward, the goal is to hire 500 more technicians with the expectation of hiring more women.

According to BNN Bloomberg, the company didn’t respond to a request for comment, but we’d be interested to find out whether or not gender equality in the workplace also means the newly hired females are being paid the same wages as the male auto technicians.