Australia care home job ad says ‘dark-skinned people’ should not apply

‘We request no dark-skinned (Indian or African) applicants apply for this role,’ says ad

The company said the appeal for ‘dark-skinned’ people not to submit an application for the role was made because of a ‘client request’ (Au.Indeed.com)

A care provider in Australia has caused outrage after posting a job advert urging “dark-skinned” people not to apply for a role.

Absolute Care and Health, a disability care provider located in South Yarra in Melbourne, shared the vacancy on website Indeed.com.

“We seek mature support workers, ideally aged 40 years and over,” it said. “We request no dark-skinned (Indian or African) applicants apply for this role.”

The care provider has since apologised for sharing the job description which was branded “stomach-churning” by Dvir Abramovich, an Israeli-Australian academic who specialises in Holocaust studies and who is the chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission.

“This ad crossed so many lines that I stopped counting and turned back the clock on race relations,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.

“And while I am glad that someone at the company woke up to this disgraceful situation and pulled this deeply hurtful and abhorrent ad, one has to wonder how the phrasing and intent did not raise a single red flag within the organisation before it was published.”

The company said the appeal for “dark-skinned” people not to submit an application for the role was made because of a “client request” – adding that an investigation into the posting had now been started.

“We published a job advertisement which contained information that was discriminatory and offensive,” it said in a statement.

“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.”

Earlier in the week, Nestlé announced it would change the names of two of its confectionery products in Australia – Red Skins and Chicos sweets – because they have racial “overtones”.

While Redskin is an offensive slang term that refers to Native Americans, chico, which means “boy” in Spanish, can be insulting to those from a Latin American background.

Businesses are being made to rethink their products as discussions over systemic racism rage in the wake of the death of George Floyd in US police custody.