NI education: Teachers' fair employment law exemption 'outdated'

The union says every teacher should be able to apply for work in any school regardless of their religion

The exemption of teachers in Northern Ireland from fair employment legislation "is outdated and needs to be removed", according to a union.

A number of MLAs and the former first minister, Arlene Foster, have previously criticised that exemption.

The teaching union, the NASUWT, is the latest to call for the exemption to be scrapped.

The recruitment of teachers is exempt from legislation outlawing religious discrimination in Northern Ireland.

The NASUWT said removing the exemption would "tackle endemic nepotism and lack of diversity in the teaching profession."

'Definitely should go'

The union is to present a motion to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) conference in Belfast on Tuesday.

It calls for the backing of the wider trade union movement for the exemption to be removed.

"The practical effect of this is that it is not currently unlawful to discriminate against someone in an appointment process on the basis of their religious belief," the NASUWT said.

In 1976, the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act exempted teachers and clergy as "the essential nature of the job requires it be done by a person holding, or not holding, a particular religious belief".

That was maintained in the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.

The exemption allows schools to use religious background or belief in deciding who to recruit to teaching posts.

It also means schools have no legal obligation to monitor the community background of their teaching staff.

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In 2004, the Equality Commission investigated the exemption and found "the exception of teachers from the religious discrimination provisions is widely accepted, and the support for change is a minority view".

According to the Equality Commission, there were concerns from the Catholic church at the time that ending it would lead to Catholic schools losing their religious ethos and becoming non-denominational.

There were also concerns from the Protestant churches that Protestant teachers would be disadvantaged because of the need for teachers in Catholic primary schools to have a certificate in religious education.

The commission did recommend scrapping the exemption for post-primary schools but no changes to the law were subsequently made.

Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner of the Equality Commission, said: "It definitely should go from post-primary schools and, in primary schools, we think there should be a concerted effort to find a way to remove from that as well."

The recruitment of teachers in Northern Ireland is exempt from legislation outlawing religious discrimination

In recent years a number of assembly members have been critical of the recruitment of teachers being exempt from fair employment laws.

In 2019, research from the Unesco Education centre at Ulster University (UU) also suggested it contributed to relatively few teachers from a Protestant background teaching in Catholic maintained schools, and vice-versa.

The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) said it was "actively considering its position on the issue".

But CCMS added it believed the exemption "should remain in place until such time as any proposals for its repeal can be demonstrated to give complete confidence to the future of, in our case, Catholic education".

The NASUWT's Northern Ireland official Justin McCamphill said the exemption was "outdated and needs to be removed".

"We are calling on the first and deputy first minister to remove this and ensure that every teacher has equality of opportunity and is able to apply for work in any school regardless of their religion or perceived community background," he said.

The leaders of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland are also expected to speak at the ICTU conference at the Waterfront Hall on Tuesday.