FED: Church job providers may be breaking the law Sidoti

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-1999
FED: Church job providers may be breaking the law Sidoti

Human Rights Commissioner CHRIS SIDOTI says burgeoning church-run Job Network providers
will be breaking the law if they discriminate on the basis of religion.

Church groups became the main providers of job search services in the second round
of Job Network tenders earlier this month.

Four of the biggest providers - the Salvation Army's Employment Plus, the Catholic
Church's Centacare, Mission Australia and Wesley Uniting Employment - will earn $700 million
in government contracts over the next three years.

But Mr SIDOTI says that if any of them require someone to belong to a particular religious
denomination in order to get a job, they'll be outside the law.

The Wesley organisation's community services manager, WAYNE KOIVU, meanwhile says Muslims
and Buddhists are unlikely to find work with his organisation because they'd have to affirm
they have Christian values.

AAP RTV rmg/kr/jn

KEYWORD: JOBS (CANBERRA)

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