THE Minister for Equality and Law Reform has said teachers' complaints that the Employment Equality Bill will legalise action by schools on the basis of their private lives are "entirely bogus".
Mr Taylor said the Bill, which has been referred to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality, does not take away any teachers' rights which "at present exist under any other legislation". Neither does it "grant new powers to schools to act against them".
At the three teacher union conferences last week, delegates lined up to attack Section 37 (1) of the Bill, which allows school authorities to take action against teachers who are deemed to be undermining a school's religious ethos.
Mr Taylor said the Bill had been criticised "in a most inaccurate and misleading manner by certain teacher trade unionists".
He went on: "What Section 37 (1) means is that teachers will continue to enjoy all existing rights as to unfair dismissals, judicial review or under any other laws, and that they would have a new additional right of access to a Director of Equality Investigations if they feel they have been discriminated against.
"A judgment as to the relevance of the school ethos would, under Section 37 (1), be made by the independent Director of Equality Investigations, and not by the school itself, and that judgement would arise only if the teacher chose to take a case under the Bill, as opposed to any other existing legal remedy which the teacher now enjoys."
He accused the teachers unions of whipping up totally unrealistic fears among teachers throughout the country.