A Virginia-based IT and staffing company’s website has apparently shut down without explanation after the company listed a job posting on Indeed.com that included a “note” saying that it was only looking for white U.S. citizens for the position.
The listing, which the company has since taken down, added that the specifications should not be shared with the candidates, according to an archived version of the now-deleted post. Racially discriminating against job applicants is forbidden by federal law.
Videos by VICE
The company, Arthur Grand Technologies, assists federal government organizations and corporate clients alike with IT staffing and recruitment and outsourcing services. Past clients appear to include Staples, Capital One, the IRS, Fannie Mae, Comcast, and A+E, according to the company’s now-defunct website.
After the “white”-only listing received condemnation online this week, Arthur Grand responded in a LinkedIn post published Wednesday morning. The LinkedIn post, which has been edited since it was initially published, called the job posting “offensive” and said it “was neither authorized nor posted by Arthur Grand or its employees” and that a “former employee took an existing posting and added discriminatory language, then reposted it through his own account.” The company then claimed it is taking legal action against the person who published the listing.
Arthur Grand then said that to “avoid further chaos,” it was requesting no further questions on the matter. “Request everyone to support and cooperate,” the company said.
In the comments, however, LinkedIn users took issue with the explanation, particularly with what they saw as inconsistencies. According to a screenshot circulating on Twitter and LinkedIn, an earlier explanation posted by the company had said the company had “conducted an investigation and discovered that a new junior recruiter”—not a former employee—“at our firm was responsible for the offending job posting.” The company said it had fired the employee in question.
As of publication, the company’s Twitter account has been disabled, and its Facebook page is not available either. Arthur Grand’s website redirects to a WordPress installation page, though an earlier version of it has been archived by the Internet Archive.
Arthur Grand did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment, and a call to the number listed on the defunct website went straight to voicemail, which said it could not accept any more messages.
The IT company HTC Global and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which were listed as the key clients related to the position, did not respond to requests for clarification on their relationship with Arthur Grand.
