Melbourne disability care provider forced to pull 'discriminatory' ad

A disability care provider has sparked fury after a discriminatory job ad. Photo / 123rf

A Melbourne disability care provider has come under fire for posting a job ad that discouraged "dark-skinned" people from applying.

Absolute Care and Health, based in South Yarra, posted the vacancy on website Indeed.com on Monday.

"We request no dark-skinned (Indian or African) applicant apply for this role," the ad read.

It went on to say it was due to a "client request".

The post sparked outrage in Melbourne's Indian and African communities, so much so it has since been removed by the company.

"I felt really, really angry when I saw the ad," Meenu Chandran, a social worker who had previously worked in the disability care sector, told SBS Malayalam.

She said she had reported the job ad to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

"It is outright discriminatory. I was thinking that people would learn from what is happening in the US with (George) Floyd case, but they didn't," she said.

Barbara Ould, the chief executive of Absolute Care and Health, has since acknowledged the ad was discriminatory and offensive.

"On 22nd June, we published a job advertisement which regrettably contained information that was discriminatory and has caused offence," she told SBS Malayalam in a statement.

"We are deeply saddened and sorry for this unintentional, serious error and for the offence and distress it has caused."

"It happened as a result of an extreme failure in our internal processes and we are so very deeply sorry for the offence and distress that our error has caused," Ms Ould said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia.

"As soon as we discovered that the advertisement had been posted, we quickly removed it; published an apology on our website; apologised personally to those who had viewed the advert and those who contacted us with their concerns; and, started an investigation as to how it happened."

Section 24 of Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act 2010 makes it legal for an employer to discriminate upon who they offer employment to in relation to care and other domestic and personal work within their home, or in the case of business, in the home of the person they provide services for.