The IEU is campaigning for an end to religious exemptions that make it legal to discriminate against school staff and students.
The IEU Council of 120 elected members at its March meeting recommitted to this campaign, unanimously endorsing the following motion:
“That the IEUA NSW/ACT Branch Council calls on the NSW government to reform the state’s anti-discrimination laws and seeks the removal of exemptions that make it legal for private educational authorities to discriminate against school staff and students in their services.”
Union demands urgent reform
IEUA NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Carol Matthews in April wrote to NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley to seek a meeting to discuss the union’s demand for reform of the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
“The Act has been amended numerous times yet still retains exemptions that allow discrimination on many attributes against members employed by private educational authorities,” she wrote.
Matthews said these “unqualified absolute exemptions” permit discrimination on the grounds of gender, disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity and marital status.
“Additional broad exemptions apply to religious bodies, including religious schools,” she said. “These exemptions are broader than those applying in any other state or territory or federally.”
Matthews said the exemptions in the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act are wide ranging and not confined to schools serving religious communities.
“Our members are denied fundamental workplace rights enjoyed by other workers in NSW,” she said.
Matthews has also written to NSW Education Minister Prue Car, Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane and Greens MP Jenny Leong.
School staff deserve protections
The IEU has written to MPs as the NSW government undertakes a long-running review of the state’s anti-discrimination law.
The union last year provided a lengthy submission to the NSW Law Reform Commission calling for the almost 50-year-old anti-discrimination law to be modernised.
“The Act permits broad exceptions for religious bodies and private educational authorities, enabling discriminatory practices that are increasingly misaligned with contemporary community standards and human rights principles,” Matthews said.
The union believes these exceptions undermine the Act’s primary purpose of promoting equality and preventing discrimination in public life.
“IEU members have not fully benefited from the protections provided under the Act due to the breadth of these exemptions and exceptions,” Matthews said.
In February, the union backed Sydney Independent MP Alex Greenwich’s commitment to end the exemptions that permit non-government schools to target LGBTQIA+ teachers and support staff.
Employers have nothing to fear
Teachers, school leaders and school support staff have shared heartbreaking stories with the union of the discrimination they have suffered at work because of their sexual orientation, for accessing fertility treatments, a change in their relationship or pregnancy.
“Our members should not be at risk of losing their jobs because of their sexual orientation or because they divorce, remarry or use contraception or IVF services,” Matthews said.
“School employers have nothing to fear from modern community standards. They can still build communities of faith without any need to discriminate.”
Matthews said special exemptions to discriminate are in conflict with the responsibility of employers to mitigate psychosocial hazards in the workplace.
“Discrimination at work can have a devastating impact on the mental health of workers,” she said. “Teachers and support staff in faith-based schools deserve the same employment protections as the rest of the community.”
