Female Applicant Called to Drinking Party as "Second Interview"
The Born Korea: "Employee Immediately Removed from Duties"
An executive of The Born Korea, led by CEO Baek Jong-won, has been accused of calling a female applicant to a drinking party under the pretext of an interview and making inappropriate remarks. As the controversy spread, The Born Korea announced on the 8th that the executive had been excluded from work and a formal investigation had begun. Earlier, on the 5th, a video titled "Recording of Baek Jong-won The Born Korea's Female Drinking Interview" was uploaded to the YouTube channel 'Park Su-ik.' The video contained remarks made by Manager A to Ms. B, a female applicant who applied to become a store owner at 'Yesan Permanent Market' in Yesan-gun, Chungnam, operated by The Born Korea. After the official interview ended, Manager A personally contacted Ms. B and said, "You can think of this as a second interview," and held an individual drinking party.
An executive of Theborn Korea, led by CEO Baek Jong-won, has been accused of calling a female applicant to a drinking party under the pretext of an interview and making inappropriate remarks. As the controversy spread, Theborn Korea announced on the 8th that the executive had been removed from work and a formal investigation had begun. Provided by Theborn Korea
Manager A showed a video featuring himself and other employees on CEO Baek's YouTube channel and said, "I make you see it like this, to CEO Baek Jong-won," adding, "They begged me to hire them, and I hired them with full authority." He also emphasized his position by saying, "Our employees complained a lot about why they were given special treatment," and "You may not know, but I was the one who hired them." Then Manager A said, "You might find it strange because I suddenly asked you to drink," and "The CEO said there is nothing better than drinking when choosing good people." He also asked personal questions like, "Do you have a boyfriend? You shouldn't have one."
Afterward, Ms. B, who reported the incident to JTBC's 'Incident Manager,' said, "It was difficult to refuse because the manager personally called me." Ms. B later passed the final selection and started working at the Yesan market. She claimed, "At the drinking party with the finally selected store owners, Manager A also attempted unpleasant physical contact." Ms. B alleged that after she stopped attending drinking parties, Manager A repeatedly instructed to change the menu several times, and she was unfairly treated, including having her store location changed. Eventually, Ms. B closed her store due to poor sales and debt. She said, "I trusted CEO Baek and started, but the result was devastating," and added, "CEO Baek needs to supervise what his employees are doing more closely." Regarding this, The Born Korea stated, "The employee in question has been immediately excluded from work," and "We are taking this matter seriously. We will conduct a thorough investigation through an external agency to determine if there are any illegal acts and take strict measures."
An executive of The Born Korea, led by CEO Baek Jong-won, has been accused of calling a female applicant to a drinking party under the pretext of an interview and engaging in inappropriate behavior. As the controversy spread, The Born Korea announced on the 8th that the executive had been excluded from work and a formal investigation had begun. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung
Meanwhile, recently, The Born Korea has been embroiled in several controversies, including false advertising about the origin of products at Baekdabang, issues with the ingredient content of tangerine beer, false labeling of the origin of soy sauce and doenjang, and violations of the Agricultural Land Act for producing products with foreign ingredients in agricultural promotion zones. In response, CEO Baek said at the regular shareholders' meeting on the 28th of last month, "Despite the best performance since our founding, I deeply apologize for causing worry and disappointment to our shareholders," and emphasized, "We are re-examining the company's internal systems from scratch. We will cooperate with external experts to increase transparency and establish an effective internal monitoring system."
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