When is Discrimination based on Religion not discriminatory?  The Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 recently presented and read for the first time in the House of Representatives seeks to address this.  Today we take a quick look at some of the key clauses of the bill as discuss some of the potential implications.

The bill introduces protections for “statements of believe” which are statements of a religious beliefs held by a person made in good faith (whether written, spoken to via other communications) that are genuinely considered to be in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs, or teachings of that religion.

The definition also includes statements made by a person who does not hold a religious belief which is made in good faith that the person genuinely considers to relate to “the fact of not holding a religious belief”.

Essentially, this Bill allows faith based employers to discriminate against employees and potential employees based on their religious belief or activity. E.g. a religious primary school may require its staff and students to practice that religion as permitted discrimination provided the requirement is necessary to avoid “injury to the religious susceptibilities of people of that religion.”

Should this bill be passed, we believe it will also impact on general protections claims.

As employers, we are interested in your thoughts.  Do you believe that faith based organisations should be allowed to discriminate based on faith?

Naturally, this is a challenging area to navigate and we will continue to monitor this legislation as it is debated in parliament.  If you feel that your business would benefit from a free consultation supported by a strategic action plan with an experienced HR consultant, please reach out to us by visiting ondemandhr.com.au/advice.

Looking forward to your comments and seeing you in the next update.