Hong Kong preschool worker sacked for using job ad to make advances to applicant

A private kindergarten in Hong Kong has sacked an employee for using its hiring platform to make romantic advances to a female job applicant and asking her to be his personal assistant after an unauthorised interview.

Joyful World International Nursery and Kindergarten said on Monday that it found the staff member had used an online recruitment platform to publish misleading job advertisements for his own purposes outside working hours. It stressed it did not condone the actions.

The job-seeker recalled her experience of being interviewed last week by a male staff member surnamed Chan at one of the five Joyful branches for the position of a part-time childcare assistant.

According to a social media post by the woman, the advertisement specifically stated that the employer was looking for candidates aged 16 to 25 years old for a job that paid an hourly rate of HK$90 (US$11.50).

But the advertisement asked interested candidates to send their personal details to a WhatsApp number, instead of emailing their application letter to the preschool.

“When I went to the kindergarten in the afternoon, there was no one there except the male staff member,” the woman said in her post.

The applicant also said the man claimed he had forgotten to ask her some questions during the job interview and offered to w alk her to the MTR station. But during the walk, he proceeded to ask her personal questions of a romantic nature instead.