[Editorial] Empty ‘hiring-linked’ promises: Who is accountable?

Water is right in front of him, but he cannot drink it. Fruit seems close enough to touch, yet he can never grasp it. This is the punishment given to Tantalus, who incurred the wrath of the gods in Greek and Roman mythology. What makes it especially cruel is that it keeps him in a state where it looks like just a little more effort will be enough, over and over again. To place what someone longs for right before their eyes and still never let them attain it is what we commonly call a form of "torture by hope."
"For interns with low performance, early termination of the contract can actually help them move on more quickly to other opportunities." This was the response when Daewoong Group was asked why it had unilaterally terminated the contract of one out of four new hiring-linked interns, who had been selected on the premise of conversion to full-time positions. The company had previously stated in the employment contract that the term would be three months and that conversion to full-time status would be decided based on an evaluation. Creating expectations under the banner of a "hiring-linked" program, then failing to grant even the full period for assessment, calls to mind the punishment of Tantalus.
According to the employment statistics of the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), the number of employed people aged 25 to 29 in February stood at 2,346,000, down 62,000 from a year earlier, marking the lowest level in nine years since 2017. As the threshold for employment has risen, most job seekers invest months or even years just to pass a single recruitment stage. A single notice of acceptance can send them from heaven to hell and back. In this reality, treating a hard-won three-month contract as mere "wasted time" to be cut short, and then framing mid-term dismissal as an opportunity, is nothing but hypocrisy.
Testimonies continue to emerge that the possibility of dismissal during the contract period was never clearly communicated. On top of that, the company reportedly reviewed the legal risks of early termination internally and then asked the dismissed interns to sign consent forms for contract termination, which underscores the gravity of the situation. Labor groups point out that if this mid-term dismissal was a deliberate decision made with full awareness of the potential problems, the weight of responsibility is all the heavier.
This case is not simply about a few internship contracts being ended early at a single company. By offering the promise of "three months of contract followed by review for full-time employment"—a pledge that in practice casts doubt on the company’s intent to honor it—and then broadly nullifying it, the company has effectively issued a bad check that shakes the very foundation of hiring-linked internship programs. If companies can repeatedly issue such empty promises without facing any legal or social consequences, the hiring market will inevitably become distorted. Unkept promises turn into custom, and the damage is passed on to job seekers. This is why monitoring and calling out such practices must become a shared responsibility for all of us, to break the vicious cycle.
yesji@fnnews.com Reporter