A staff member from a Burger Project restaurant has been fired over a racist slur which targeted a man dining at the venue in Melbourne.
Nicholas Muchinguri went to the St Collins Lane restaurant in Melbourne's CBD on Friday. The restaurant is run by the Rockpool Dining Group, which is part-owned by celebrity chef Neil Perry.
Mr Muchinguri later posted an image of the receipt he received at the restaurant on Twitter, which had the words "Order # 16 n****s" printed on it.
"This is what happened to me @_burgerproject, they said it was a 'typo'. Totally disgusting in this day and age! @Rockpool Dining," Mr Muchinguri tweeted.
Mr Muchinguri's wife Rutendo also posted about the incident on Facebook, saying: "My hard working black husband went to your Collins St (sic) store to have lunch with his friends and this is a photo of his receipt for the order.
"It is so disappointing that in a place where my husband spent his hard earned money, he received this sort of disgracefully discriminatory treatment.
"Its (sic) exhausting that in 2017, in a modern and multicultural society some of your staff remain insensitive to the impact that this insidiously nasty and vile word has."
The restaurant has since fired the staff member involved and apologised "for the upset and hurt this has caused".
"We are very concerned to learn about the unacceptable language used by an employee of our Burger Project St Collins Lane store today (Friday)," a post on the Burger Project Facebook page read.
"Rockpool Dining Group is a caring and inclusive company. We have a clear policy of respect and care for our customers, staff and community.
"We do not condone this kind of behaviour from our staff, or accept this treatment of our customers.
"As soon as we became aware of the matter this afternoon, when we were contacted on the behalf of the customer, we acted: we reached out and apologised and the employee's position was terminated.
"The employee's behaviour was in breach of our code of conduct and such behaviour won't be tolerated."
In a later post on Facebook, Mrs Muchinguri thanked the restaurant and Neil Perry for responding to the incident.
Nicholas Muchinguri described the incident as "disgusting". Source: Twitter / @nickmuchi
"Nicholas and I would like to thank everyone for their support. Although we are happy to see that there was (sic) repercussions for the staff member, we don't wish him any ill will.
"Hopefully this will turn into a learning opportunity for him and the entire staff at The Burger Project.
"We also want to thank Neil Perry for calling Nicholas first thing this morning (Saturday) to offer an apology on behalf of the company."
