Cunning PRC trying to blackmail her ex-boss

[SwineHunter]

Chinese national claims she's victim of sexual harassment
By Lim Wei Li
June 04, 2010

She claimed her boss offered to extend her work contract if she would be his girlfriend.

Chinese national Xu Feng Jiao, 21, alleged that when she rejected him, he cut her pay and eventually sacked her.

But her former employer, Italian Fabrizio Cantarella, who owns Finalmente Gastronomia in Upper Thomson, has rubbished her claims. He also said his records are open for inspection.

A Ministry of Manpower spokesman told The New Paper they were investigating the matter.

Ms Xu, who is from Jilin province in China, arrived here in May 2008, after paying $10,000 to a middleman in China.

She was hired as a kitchen helper at the restaurant. She earned about $1,100 a month.

She alleged that Mr Cantarella, a married father of two girls, began sexually harassing her, as well as the other female employees about a year ago.

 

[Yoshitsune Minamoto]

Woman: I rejected boss' flirting, so I was sacked


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</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" class="bodytext_10pt"> <!-- CONTENT : start --> By Lim Wei Li

SHE claimed her boss offered to extend her work contract if she would be his girlfriend. Chinese national Xu Feng Jiao, 21, alleged that when she rejected him, he cut her pay and eventually sacked her. But her former employer, Italian Fabrizio Cantarella, who owns Finalmente Gastronomia in Upper Thomson, has rubbished her claims. He also said his records are open for inspection.

A Ministry of Manpower spokesman told The New Paper they were investigating the matter. Ms Xu, who is from Jilin province in China, arrived here in May 2008, after paying $10,000 to a middleman in China. She was hired as a kitchen helper at the restaurant. She earned about $1,100 a month. Initially, the work was pleasant, she told The New Paper recently.

Mr Cantarella, 48, paid $900 a month for her accommodation in a two-room flat she shared with another woman.She also did not have to pay for the utilities. But about a year ago, Ms Xu claimed that Mr Cantarella started making her pay the utilities bills. She also alleged that the married father of two girls began sexually harassing her, as well as the other female employees.

She told The New Paper in Mandarin: "He would hug us, or touch our backsides, but I dismissed such gestures as him being playful. He would also talk about his sexual exploits or show us lewd SMSes." Then, problems at her rented flat forced her to move out in October last year. She claimed her boss offered to put her up at his place and increased her pay by $100. Ms Xu said she accepted his offer as she needed a place to stay.

However, while taking her home one day, he asked her to be his girlfriend. She claimed he told her: "If you are willing to be my girlfriend, I'll extend your contract and work permit... "I refused, and we had an argument. Following that, he became very cold to me. "He told me to move out of his place as he said someone else was coming in to stay...

" Ms Xu claimed Mr Cantarella also stopped paying for her accommodation, so she had to share a room in a three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio with two other girls, paying $210 a month. Mr Cantarella also started finding unreasonable excuses to dock her pay, Ms Xu claimed. "He fined me $50 for not wearing my apron before the workday had started," she said. But Mr Cantarella claimed that these incidents did not happen.

Ms Xu's employment pass was due to expire on May 11. On her last day of work, May 10, she said she approached Mr Cantarella asking for monetary compensation for leave she had not taken. She claimed he produced a document with his signature saying that she had already taken the leave. She said: "I had never seen the document before that?" She claimed that the leave was worth about $800 in wages.
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[Yoshitsune Minamoto]

Other staff have no problems

But Mr Cantarella said he had informed his staff that a period when the restaurant was closed would be treated as their leave. A woman who is still working at the restaurant said Ms Xu had told her about how Mr Cantarella kept asking her out for dinner. She said: "I did not see him touching her, but she told me the incidents usually happened in his car, or outside." The woman, who declined to be named, said she had never faced any harassment herself.

Another woman who used to work at the restaurant said Mr Cantarella was a playful person by nature and often made lewd jokes to staff and customers alike. She said: "Maybe when he was cracking one of his jokes he might have gone overboard, which could have made Ms Xu uncomfortable." Ms Xu returned to China after her work pass expired. When The New Paper contacted Mr Cantarella, he said he had no idea what Ms Xu's allegations were about.

He said: "I have many things to worry about every day and I really don't understand why she made those allegations. "I did not cheat her of her money, as she claimed. Everything is on paper. You can speak to my accountant or other workers here and come down any time you wish, if you need to look at our papers. "I actually issued a notice giving all the workers leave for a month last year when we moved from the former Macpherson premises to the current one in Upper Thomson, so I did not (make her) forfeit her leave at all."

He also added that he had let Ms Xu stay at his place without rent last year as she had come to him saying that she had nowhere to stay. He said: "I let her stay at my place, but later I became uncomfortable with the arrangement because my wife told me that she often returned very late at night, around 3-4am." Mr Cantarella said he did not renew her contract because towards the end, her performance had started to suffer. "She started burning the food she was making and I decided that it was better to train a new worker," he said.

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