7.The Act amends the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (“the 1998 Order”) to revoke Article 71 (exception in relation to school teachers). Article 71 disapplies Part VII of the Order to employment of teachers in schools, and disapplies the other provisions of the Order to recruitment of teachers. The primary effects of the disapplication are that employers of teachers do not have obligations to monitor the community composition of persons applying for jobs, persons appointed to jobs and persons promoted to jobs and that teachers are not able to bring complaints of religious discrimination relating to their recruitment. Revocation of Article 71 will put school teachers in the same position as other employees. The Act has 4 sections and 1 schedule. A commentary on each of the sections follows below.
Overview