THE teacher unions are divided in their reaction to proposed changes in anti discrimination legislation aimed at finding a balance between teachers' rights and the right of religious run schools to protect their ethos.
After several months of difficult negotiations between both the educational partners and the coalition parties, the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, yesterday published a new wording for the controversial Section 37 (1) of the Employment Equality Bill.
The original version, which the Catholic church strongly defended, made an exception for religious run schools and hospitals if job discrimination was "essential" for the maintenance of their ethos or was "reasonable to avoid offending the religious sensitivities"
of their members or clients. This last clause has now been deleted.
The revised version makes clear that schools and other religious institutions are included in the Bill, and anti discrimination claims by teachers and other workers can be brought and will be decided on by an independent Director of Equality Investigations.
A school's religious ethos is not a bar to making such claims.but may be used by school authorities to reply to them. Government sources said claims were more likely to involve religious discrimination in appointments or promotions, rather than dismissals, which are already covered by the Unfair Dismissals Act.
Mr Taylor said he responded to teachers' union concerns by narrowing the grounds on which a school could take action against an employee from where this was "essential" to maintain its religious ethos to where it is "reasonably necessary to prevent an employee or a prospective employee from undermining" that ethos.
The new draft explicitly allows religious run schools to favour co-religionists in appointments or promotions "where it is reasonable to do so in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution".
The Democratic Left TD, Ms Kathleen Lynch, said yesterday the revised Bill "is now better balanced between the rights of denominational institutions and those of workers in such institutions.
However, the difficulty of interpreting the Bill was shown in the statement of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, which said the union would continue to oppose the new wording.
The president of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, Mr John Mulcahy, said the changes "remove the more blatant aspects of previous proposals" and ensured the inclusion of teachers in the legislation's main provisions.
The Alliance for Pluralism in Education, which brings together the Campaign to Separate Church and State, the Women's Political Association and three other groups, said the changes leave it open for church schools to discriminate against applicants for teachers' positions on the grounds that they might undermine their ethos".
No Catholic church or Church of Ireland spokesperson was available for comment yesterday.
. Maol Muire Tynan, Political Reporter writes: The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, denied he had a recent meeting with representatives of the main churches over changes in the Employment Equality Bill. There had, however, been "contacts" with his office.
Asked if a meeting had been sought with him on this and the Education Bill, Mr Bruton replied that he had arranged for meetings to take place between his officials and representatives of the various churches and he had also had informal contacts" on the matter:
Mr Bruton rejected a suggestion by the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, that difficulties over Section 37 were based on criticisms from Democratic Left members "who refuse to allow the Minister for Equality and Law Reform to proceed with the Section as he wishes".