7 January 2000

Christian Employment Services Alarm Unemployed Migrants

 Migrant communities are concerned that Christian run employment agencies may discriminate against non-Christian clients.

Some migrants believe they must be Christian to access the services of employment agencies run by Christian based providers such as the Wesley Mission and the Salvation Army.

These concerns are expressed the loudest in Fairfield (which includes Cabramatta), where over half of the population are migrants, and the unemployment rate is 15% - double the national average.

"One in five Fairfield residents are not Christian and many believe these Christian agencies provide job seeking services to unemployed Christians only" said Fairfield Councillor Thang Ngo.

Even when I stressed that these services are for everyone, the reply I get is: well they expect their employees to be Christians, don’t they? So it’s obvious their priority is jobs for Christians?"

Clr Ngo calls on the Federal Government to ensure Christian service providers can not make Christian faith a part of the selection criteria for their staff.

"This is the only way we can restore credibility and confidence in these job providers" said Clr Ngo.

"After all, isn’t our primary objective to help the unemployed, regardless of background and beliefs?" he concluded.

ENDS