No Cathay Pacific job offer
By EDDIE CHUA
[email protected]
KUALA LUMPUR: Some 800 job seekers aiming to be high flyers found their dreams shattered by a bogus recruitment agency.
They had responded to an advertisement promising a US$3,000 (RM11, 004) a month in remuneration as flight attendants for “Cathay Pacific” in Hong Kong.
The interviews were held on Oct 14 and 15 at a hotel in Petaling Jaya.
The 100-odd short-listed candidates were told to pay RM500 each and a further RM5,000 for five months' intensive training if they were picked.
JOBS GROUNDED: Chong showing the advertisement which appeared in a local daily recently and the police report made by staff of a job agency which had conducted the flight attendants interviews.
Cathay Pacific Airlines Ltd country manager (Malaysia and Brunei) Angela Liew told The Star the airline was not carrying out a recruitment exercise in Malaysia.
“We have not been carrying out such a drive for the past 10 years and we don’t intend to do so in the near future,” she said.
Liew said that even if such an exercise were conducted, the airline would not hire an agency to conduct interviews.
MCA Public Service and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said the recruitment turned out to be a scam.
“The agency had lured the applicants by promising a basic pay of US$3,000 a month.”
He said the agency went to the extent of employing six former local airline staff to assist and conduct the interviews.
Chong said some 800 people, mostly women, had turned up for the interviews.
He said several of them had called him to verify the authenticity of the interview after they were told to pay fees to secure the job.
“I found the offer too good to be true and on checking with the airline (Cathay Pacific), it denied conducting the recruitment,” said Chong.
He said some of the interviewers had also lodged a police report at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters last Friday after a “Capt Kumar” told them to collect RM500 from each of the 100 candidates they had short-listed.
Chong said some of the applicants had paid the RM500. He urged those who had been offered the job to call him at 03-2161 5678.