Human Rights Watch says the policies reinforce negative attitudes about older people's abilities
Human Rights Watch has flagged three of South Korea’s age-based policies as discriminatory, and called for reforms to ensure the protection of its older workforce.
South Korean law allows employers to adopt a mandatory retirement age of 60 or older, where they can force workers to retire based only on age.
It also has a "peak wage" system that allows employers to reduce older workers’ wages three to five years before their mandatory retirement, and re-employment programmes that leave older workers in lower-paid jobs.
"Human Rights Watch found that together, these three policies - forcing people to retire, paying them less because of their age, and moving them into lower-paid, more precarious, and often more physically demanding work — violate older people's rights to work and non-discrimination," the HRW report read.
"They also reinforce negative, ageist attitudes about older people's abilities and place in society in South Korea today."
Anti-discrimination law urged
Bridget Sleap, senior researcher on the rights of older people at Human Rights Watch, called on the government to stop punishing workers for getting older.
"They deny older workers the opportunity to continue working in their main jobs, pay them less, and push them into lower-paid, precarious work, all just because of their age," Sleap said in a statement.
"The government needs to adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law to fight all forms of discrimination, including age discrimination and ageism."
Among the reforms outlined in the report were amendments to the country's Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Elderly Employment Promotion.
It also called for the abolition of the country's peak wage system, and the adoption of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law to provide equal protection against all forms of discrimination.
It also called on the country's Ministry of Employment and Labour to support employers to retain older workers, including by ensuring employers provide ongoing training for older workers and programmes to promote better health.
It also called on the ministry to require employers to introduce flexible or gradual retirement programmes without a peak wage system or a mandatory retirement age.
Additionally, it urged the ministry to prohibit, and enforce punitive measures against, employers imposing less favourable working conditions on older workers because of their age.
