Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal has ruled an Ottawa-area company discriminated against a foreign-born job applicant by telling him it "only hires white men."

The tribunal has ordered Ottawa Valley Cleaning and Restoration to pay $8,000 to Malek Bouraoui, who was denied a job last year.

Bouraoui says after applying for a job, he received a call from a man named Jesse, who asked what country he was from and whether he was white or black.

Bouraoui later received text messages from Jesse, who said he didn't hire foreigners and keeps "the white man working."

The tribunal ruled that the contents of the text messages were not only discriminatory but "egregious and abusive in nature."

It said the company - which did not file a response or participate in the matter - persistently ridiculed Bouraoui because of his race, colour and place of origin, and denied him employment based on prohibited grounds.