Australia’s second-largest telecommunications firm has apologised after one of its stores sent out a job advert seeking “Anglo-Saxon” staff.
The open position as a retail consultant at an Optus mobile phone store in Neutral Bay, “on Sydney's affluent lower north shore”, appeared on recruitment website Seek on Thursday, Perth Now reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
However, the ad also specifies that the “preffered” [sic] candidate for the post would be “Anglo-Saxon”.
By Friday morning, the ad had been removed - but screenshots of the jaw-dropping specification had already gone viral after being shared by a Twitter user:
Optus, which employs around 8,000 staff, has distanced itself from the ad, which it calls “unacceptable” and “a clear breach” of the company’s advertising and equal opportunity standards.
In a statement on Friday, human resources vice president Vaughan Paul said the company “proudly supports diversity and employs staff representing more than 70 nationalities”.
“We will be investigating how this occurred with a view to taking disciplinary action against those involved.”
CWU, the union which represents Optus workers, said it was astonished that the “racist” advert had been allowed to go public.
“It's looking to exclude certain individuals from even applying for a job based on their ethnicity,” CWU spokesman Greg Rayner told the ABC.
“It's unbelievable in this day and age that an ad such as this would even see the light of day. It shouldn't be happening, it's ridiculous.”
-
31 political cartoons for January 2026Cartoons Editorial cartoonists take on Donald Trump, ICE, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Greenland and more
-
Political cartoons for January 31Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include congressional spin, Obamacare subsidies, and more
-
Syria’s Kurds: abandoned by their US allyTalking Point Ahmed al-Sharaa’s lightning offensive against Syrian Kurdistan belies his promise to respect the country’s ethnic minorities
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
