In a strange reversal of events, Incheon International Airport Corp, favored by college graduates for its job security, good pay and other benefits, is facing backlash for a plan to offer permanent positions to over 1,900 contract or part-time security workers.

Incheon Airport, apparently aiming to be a model case of the Moon Jae-in administration’s “zero non-regular worker initiative,” announced its plan to change the employment status of nearly 10,000 contract, part-time and dispatched workers who typically work for lower wages and with less job security.

However, not everyone is happy with this arrangement.

Current employees of Incheon International Airport Co. gather against the move

Incheon Airport (like other government agencies) is notoriously hard to get into, with successful applicants to office positions typically having near-perfect scores on English proficiency tests. With this, existing full-time employees and those who have been crafting their resumes for the coveted jobs are crying foul, calling it reverse discrimination.

However, the move seemed to have especially frustrated the country's young people who, believing in fair rules, fiercely compete with each other to secure a spot at a cushy and well-paying public company like Incheon International Airport.

"Is it equality to take a spot away from those who work so hard?" a petition read. "How sad it is for all these jobseekers who are building up their credentials and studying hard only for the purpose of entering (the company)?"

As of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, more than 162,000 people had signed up for the petition against the move, which was posted the previous day.

Korea's youth notoriously spends a majority of their time studying, hoping to build up their credentials to land a good job

Despite the company's explanation that directly hiring security agents was necessary to protect the core national infrastructure, the prospect of landing a much-envied job -- effortlessly to some -- does not seem to sit well.

An opposition lawmaker called it an act of "kicking a ladder of opportunity" for "hundreds of thousands of young people" who "study at this hour with bleary eyes."

"Fairness is a belief that young people who work hard get rewarded more than those who work less," he wrote, urging to drop the "no strings attached" hiring plan "before it is too late."

What do you think of this situation?

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This article was adapted from Yonhap News