Racist comment to job seeker leads to discrimination investigation

A morning coffee and hugs all round for this barista from Brazil, but the reception could not have been more different at the weekend when Nilson Dos Santos went looking for a job at another cafe nearby.

“But you are black, I said ‘Yes, I’m black’ and he said like ‘I don’t think so you'll be able to work in the shop, my customers are white,’” Mr Dos Santos said.

The reaction simply floored the 39-year-old Australian citizen, who felt like doing the same to the cafe owner known only as ‘Steve.’

"My first reaction was like, should I punch him?," he said.

But an enraged Nilson restrained himself, instead turning the tables on the owner and standing in the middle in the cafe, publicly informing the customers present what had just happened.

"And the people reaction they all come to me and talk to me and was like that's wrong, that's awful, it’s not like that,” he said.

Inside the Forbes and Burton Café, ‘Steve’ was quickly serving up a double shot apology.

"First, I want to apologise to Nilson for what I said to him," he said.

‘Steve’ went on to say it was a misunderstanding, his English was poor and things were lost in the translation, but he now faces an investigation by the discrimination commissioner.