Australia's second largest telecommunications company, Optus, says it will likely take disciplinary action against staff responsible for an ad for "Anglo Saxon" people to apply for a job with the telco.
On Friday, David Alexander tweeted out the ad calling for candidates for a retail assistant job at Neutral Bay in Sydney, with a preference for Anglo-Saxon candidates who live near the suburb. The ad was was quickly removed from job ad website Seek.
This isn’t problematic.
People pointed out the problem.
@Optus looking to turn back the time to the White Australia policy or really trying to assist white South African farmers get a job https://t.co/o3Ibd3kzUk
The awkward moment when @Optus not only put out a racist job ad, but ask for Anglo Saxon candidates and can't even spell the English word *preferred*. #racism #onenationworthy https://t.co/01UI85cyyP
Thanks @Optus for coming out. I've been a loyal customer for 14 years and so have other thousands of non Anglo-Saxon Australians. I'll now switch to another network provider. I also hereby call upon other non Anglo-Saxon Australians to boycott @optus immediately. https://t.co/YqWUUnfdII
The vice president for human resources at Singaporean-owned telecommunications giant Optus, Vaughan Paul, told BuzzFeed News in a statement that the ad was an error and would be investigated.
"This error is completely unacceptable and a clear breach of our advertising standards and commitment to equal opportunity employment," he said.
"We have removed the advert, and will be investigating how this occurred with a view to taking disciplinary action against those involved. This incident is unacceptable and does not reflect Optus’ values of diversity and inclusion."
In 2015, Optus was forced to pull down Arabic-language ads in a store in Casula in Sydney's southwest after complaints about the signs not being in English, despite about 10% of the people in that part of Sydney speaking Arabic.