Hanwha Aerospace apologizes for discriminatory hiring guidelines

Hanwha Aerospace CEO Lee Bu-hwan has issued a formal apology following revelations that the company drafted internal guidelines to restrict experienced hires based on age and academic background. The controversial documents suggested age requirements, such as being born in 1980 or later, and limited certain roles to graduates of specific domestic or top-ranked international universities.

Lee described the guidelines as a “clear error” that occurred without proper internal verification and stated that the company would take disciplinary action against the responsible departments and individuals. While the company claims the guidelines were created by an HR staff member and were not officially implemented in actual recruitment processes, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has launched an investigation to determine if discriminatory criteria were applied in practice.

In response to the incident, Hanwha Aerospace has pledged to overhaul its recruitment processes, strengthen fair hiring training for all employees, and ensure that personal attributes unrelated to job performance do not limit candidate opportunities.