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National | Australia

Teen traumatised after McDonald's interview

An indigenous Australian mother is furious after her daughter was asked "ridiculous questions" during a job interview at a McDonald's in Cairns.

Rita Pryce, whose daughter is believed to be from the Torres Strait Islands near Queensland, took to social media this week to express her outrage.

“’Do you think you’re beautiful?’ was one of the many ridiculous questions an award-winning senior staff member of the Manoora McDonald's asked my 16yr old daughter at her FIRST ever job interview recently,” the mother wrote in a Facebook post.

“Poor thing was so scared, and confused by ‘Do you think you’re beautiful?’ so she answered ‘Uhhh...I guess...yeah...’. The staff member then said ‘Well that’s what YOU make of it’.”

‘Do you think you’re beautiful?’ was one of the many ridiculous questions an award-winning senior staff member of the...

Posted by Rita Pryce on Sunday, January 14, 2018

The questions left her daughter in tears and made her feel intimidated, sexually harassed and racially vilified, the mother says.

The next day Pryce returned to the restaurant to speak to the staff member.

“I asked for him and waited for 25 minutes in the store until someone came to recheck if I was okay. When he did finally come to speak to me, I told him I would make a complaint.

“I also told him and two staff members over the phone, how my daughter feels sick in the stomach every time we drive past a big yellow M now.”

The mother says she later received a phone call from McDonald's staff saying they spoke to the manager who interviewed her daughter and from now on there will be more than one person doing interviews.

McDonald's replied in a post on Facebook saying they are taking the matter "incredibly seriously".

“The allegations described are unacceptable and when McDonald’s head office was informed of this matter today we started an immediate review.”

McDonald's head office says they are making efforts to contact the mother to seek further details and the manager has been placed on leave to allow McDonald's to conduct a full and fair investigation.