The law currently requires giving "added points" of ten percent to the family members of persons given awards of merit for service to the state when taking civil service and teacher hiring examinations, but the Constitutional Court has declared it "inconsistent with the Constitution," essentially that it is unconstitutional. The clause becomes legally ineffective in June of next year, so there inevitably has to be alternative legislation.
The gist of the court's decision is that the ratio of added points and the number of people who qualify for them needs to be reduced. The added points program is not itself unconstitutional, but, according to the court, the range of those subject to it and the percentage granted is too discriminatory towards other test-takers. In our view, the decision is calling for a readjustment of the program to make it better fit with realities. The current "ten percent added points" has long been called by many a form of "favoritism in hiring" in employment tests where success is determined by numbers to the right of the decimal point. With an increasingly harsh job market these days and a rapidly increasing number of added points recipients passing those examinations, more and more regular test-takers have been calling the program "reverse discrimination."
This latest decision from the Constitutional Court comes just five years after an earlier decision declaring the same clause constitutional. It is good that the court is being proactive in reflecting changing realities, but it would have been okay to have waited to see what the effects of the revisions made last year were going to have been. Last year the law was revised so that the total number of added points recipients selected through the testing system cannot exceed 30 percent.
The question of interpreting more narrowly the scope of persons who qualify for added points needs to be approached with prudence. The court says that it is not consistent with the law to have more benefits going to the families of persons given awards for merit to the state than to the recipients themselves. However, the reality is that a considerable number of people who were eventually recognized by the state for their contributions to the independence movement, injuries during police and military actions, suffering from the effects of defoliants in the Vietnam War, and contributions to the democracy movement face economic hardship that is passed from one generation to the next. The basic point of the added points program is to honor the families of those who have served the state by helping give them stable places in society and a sense of pride. The National Assembly and officials responsible for veterans affairs and state medals should give year to the concern that the Constitutional Court's decision could lead to protections for their employment opportunities being removed completely.
The Hankyoreh, 25 February 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Reducing Benefits for 'Merit Awards' Recipients |
