Hyundai hires first female factory workers

The headquarters of Hyundai Motor Company (left) and its sister company Kia in Seoul (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor Group has hired female workers for its local production plants for the first time since its founding, according to the nation’s umbrella union on Tuesday.

Among a total of 200 factory workers hired in July, six were women, the Korea Metal Workers’ Union said. The carmaker, however, did not reveal the exact gender ratio.

Currently, the carmaker employs around 28,000 factory workers, among whom approximately 500 are women. Most of the female employees had previously worked as subcontracted employees and became regular workers after court rulings in their favor.

The latest recruitment marks the first time Hyundai has recruited female factory workers through open recruitment.

"This new recruitment marks the first job opening that opened doors for women in the industry since the founding of the company," the women’s committee of the union said in a statement.

They also expressed their hope to see more female workers included in the list of 500 newly hired employees, citing the carmaker’s recruitment plans to hire 700 factory workers by next year.

In March, the carmaker said it would hire a total of 700 factory workers, including 400 this year and 300 more next year. It also marked the first time in a decade that Hyundai is recruiting new workers for its production lines since 2013.

Due to the company’s attractive working conditions, technical jobs at Hyundai are highly regarded among job seekers, with some even calling it "kingsanjik" which roughly translates to “king of factory jobs.”

The company is known to offer its workers high job security and various benefits.

On the first day of document submission in early March, the company’s recruitment website experienced massive traffic and a server slowdown throughout the day, as tens of thousands of job seekers flooded the website with applications.

According to an online estimate, approximately 180,000 people have turned in their applications.