SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5)

Like most big retail stores, Banana Republic is hiring seasonal workers for the holidays. But CBS 5 has learned that 39 of the freshly-hired employees at the Grant Avenue store are from outside the country.

They have been ordered not to talk to reporters, but we met workers inside the store from South Africa, Brazil, and Japan. One worker who told CBS 5 he is from South Africa, said he is working for minimum wage and staying at a downtown hotel.

A spokesperson for The Gap, Inc. – which owns Banana Republic – told CBS 5 the store aims to hire locally, but can’t seem to get enough applications for the Grant Avenue store, saying "We have found it harder to fill that capacity."

So the spokesperson said Banana Republic contracted with a company called CCUSA and hired 39 graduate students with visas, from outside the United States, looking for international experience.

Skip Pas owns West Coast Leather and has been a neighbor of Banana Republic for more than a decade.

"Very hard to believe," Pas said. "We have a store in the Westfield San Francisco Center and every day two or three people are coming into the store looking for a job."

"To bring in people from all over the world, it sounds like a nice program for the international aspect. But you know, this is San Francisco and right now people are having to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet," Pas said.

Two CBS 5 staffers inquired inside the store and on the telephone as to whether we could apply for employment, but Banana Republic employees told us that the positions were filled and no jobs were available.

Louise Callagy, spokesperson for Gap, Inc. said, "that is not true. Absolutely we are still hiring. I have validated this with the store manager, the regional director and head of stores and HR – the folks who are aware of these needs."

Callagy said perhaps a worker made a mistake. "I have already alerted our store communications team to ensure this is fixed," She said. "Unfortunately sometimes when you have so many extra employees, they are not always aware of everything going on in the business as they are focused on meeting customer needs."

Callagy also released a statement regarding the hires at the Grant Avenue store.

"Every year Banana Republic, along with many other retailers, hires seasonal workers to help cater to our customers needs during this busy holiday season.

"Banana Republic has 19 Bay Area stores out of a total of 74 California stores. All of the workers (both full time and seasonal) at our 19 Bay Area stores are local, except for the 39 seasonal workers we hired at our Grant Avenue store as a one time, one store only business solution, while we continue to actively recruit.

"We welcome all interested candidates to apply online at www.gapinc.com/jobs and currently the vast majority of our seasonal employees at Grant Ave are local.

"Across all of our Gap Inc. brands which include Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic, we hire tens of thousands of seasonal workers, the overwhelming majority of which are local, returning workers. Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic have a total of 314 stores in California."