- A Toronto pharmacy faces backlash after posting a job opening for ‘volunteers’
- Shoppers Drug Mart removed the post, claiming it was posted in error
A Canadian store has sparked backlash online after posting a vacancy for “volunteers.”
A Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy in downtown Toronto posted the unpaid position on job site LinkedIn on Thursday, CBC News reports this.
“Your role as a volunteer is critical to ensuring our customers have a positive and seamless shopping experience,” the listing said.
The unpaid role would require “assisting customers, stocking shelves and organizing inventory.”
Social media users mocked the ad with one message: ‘Damn, an opportunity like that can’t be beat. Too bad I have to eat,” on Twitter with a selection of the entry.
Shoppers Drug Mart removed the post, claiming it was posted in error
‘Recruitment for a ‘voluntary’ employee. You just can’t make stuff like this up. But for anyone who wants to work for free: unfortunately the position is closed,” someone else wrote on the site.
“Sorry, am I hallucinating or does this LinkedIn post for Shoppers Drug Mart actually say ‘volunteer’?” This would be the same company owned by Weston that just posted $537 million in profit for the quarter, right?” a third added.
The job was advertised by Emil Harba, the pharmacist-owner of the Shoppers Drug Mart at King and Peter in Toronto.
Shoppers Drug Mart has since claimed it was accidentally posted online.
The “vacancy was a mistake,” the company said in a statement to CBC, explaining that having volunteers in stores was against company policy.
‘It was closed after it was posted and it is being removed. Shoppers Drug Mart does not have volunteers in its stores and that is not within our policy,” said Dave Bauer, the company’s director of media relations.
However, Harba told the station that the job posting was intentional but that he was only “trying to help people looking for Canadian experience.”
“The post was not for bad intentions, but for good intentions,” he told the publication.
Harba explained that he often receives messages from people wanting to gain work experience, but once he was told by the company that this would not be allowed, he immediately deleted the listing.