By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

A human rights agency accused Korean Air Wednesday of discrimination against men in its recruitment of cabin attendants.

The National Human Rights Commission recommended the nation's largest carrier to change its employment system, which allows only women to apply for flight attendant positions.

The airline selects male cabin crew from existing workers through internal recruitment, while it picks female crew from both internal and external applications.

The commission ruled that it is a gender-discriminatory system and banned by the constitution.

It said all other domestic carriers and foreign companies hiring Korean crew members do not favor a specific gender, but that Korean Air has not opened cabin crew recruitment to men since 1997.

Korean Air rejected the allegation. An official said, ''The basic (tenet) of our employment policy is cultivating all-around workers, so ordinary employees wanting to work as flight attendants apply for the position.''

He said that the carrier can maintain the number of male attendants through internal recruitment because they usually work long hours ㅡ but that it needs to select females from outside the company due to internal employees taking maternity or childcare leave, or quitting their jobs.

The carrier claimed women are more attentive than men and have better qualities for the job, adding that the method of selecting workers is a matter for the company to decide.

But the commission said autonomy in personnel affairs cannot justify depriving a specific gender of the right to apply for a job. ''Internal recruitment is not the answer to the problem that men with enough qualifications, such as high TOEIC scores, are deprived of a chance to apply.''

It also said that cabin attendants' essential duty is safety-related ㅡ such as emergency evacuations ㅡ and passenger service is not a duty only for women. ''Considering such factors and other carriers' cases, Korean Air's recruitment system is not reasonable, even though passengers prefer female attendants' service to males,'' the commission said.

Korean Air has refused to accept the recommendation. ''Such recruitment is part of our strategies in strengthening service and competitiveness. The recommendation has come amid a simplified comparison with other carriers and infringed on (an) individual company's autonomy, so we do not accept it,'' the official said.

Of Korean Air's 4,700 flight attendants, only about 10 percent, or 436, are men.

Asiana Airlines, which had a similar policy, abolished the practice earlier this year after the commission began examining its recruitment system.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr