South Korea to host a joint agreement and declaration ceremony to promote hiring people with disabilities and carry out ESG practices
In celebration of the Month of Persons with Disabilities in April, the Ministry of Employment and Labor
(Minister: An, Kyung Duk) and the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities (KEAD) (President:
Hyanghyeon Cho) hosted a joint agreement and declaration ceremony to promote hiring people with
disabilities and carry out ESG practices on Thursday, April 21 in the presence of representatives of five
conglomerates.
This ceremony was attended by Hwa Jin Park, Vice Minister of Employment and Labor, Hyanghyeon Cho,
President of KEAD, Youngun Kim, Head of HR Division at GC Pharma, Ohseung Kwon, Head of HR Strategy
Team of HR Innovation Office at Lotte Corporation, Hyunjung Jeon, Head of Management Support Division
at Coway, Yongho Choi, Head of Labor-Management Cooperation Office at Harim, Gyechan Lee, Head of
HR Division at Halla, among others.
On behalf of Lotte Group as one of the four (out of 33) conglomerates which have fulfilled the mandatory
employment quota for persons with disabilities, LOTTE Corporation shared what efforts the Group had
made to meet the quota citing on-site cases as examples and shared the view on the importance of hiring
the disabled with other participants.
In addition, other participating companies, which have contributed to the virus control and prevention as
well as economic growth in recent years by responding to rapid changes in people’s daily lives and the way
people work, driven by the pandemic, expressed their commitment to work more actively from this year to
set a good example in hiring people with disabilities as well.
Vice Minister Park said. “As ESG management is gaining traction these days, today’s ceremony will serve as
an opportunity for all of the business leaders here to reaffirm their commitment to hire persons with
disabilities.” He added, “The Ministry of Employment and Labor, along with KEAD, will continue to keep our
eyes open and ensure that there is no regulatory challenge making it difficult for businesses to hire
disabled persons.”
“It is very desirable for the holding companies of large conglomerates in different sectors to take the lead
in creating quality jobs for people with disabilities,” President Cho of KEAD said. “Since meeting the social
commitment of hiring persons with disabilities as established by law constitutes the basics of ESG
management, we will support businesses actively to help realize social values by hiring persons with
disabilities.”
The large businesses which were present at the ceremony made a commitment to do their utmost to satisfy
the mandatory employment quota by employing disabled persons in various positions including office work
and supporting work, and support their employment through specialized employment consulting in
cooperation with KEAD.