Church job agency faces complaint

By LAURA TINGLE, Political Correspondent (SMH 21/2)

One of the Christian job agencies that won a contract in the Howard Government's Job Network and seeks Christian values in its prospective employees faces a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission over its employment preferences.

Mission Employment - the second largest contract winner in the Job Network tender announced in December - has had a complaint lodged with the commission by Fairfield Councillor Thang Ngo over its recruitment drive for its Cabramatta and Fairfield offices.

Cr Ngo says both potential employees and clients of Mission Employment - which has won contracts in the area - are alarmed by the need for Christian credentials with Mission Employment.

He says one of the requirements in the selection criteria for staff working for Mission Employment was "an ability to commit to the Christian values and ethos of Mission Australia".

"Potential local candidates are rightly alarmed at the requirement for them to commit to Christian values as Fairfield has more people from non-Christian backgrounds than any other local government area in Australia," Cr Ngo said. "The unemployed are telling me they don't want to go to Christian agencies for assistance in seeking jobs."

Fairfield's jobless rate is almost double the national average at 11.2 per cent. A quarter of its population are either Buddhists or listed themselves as having no religion in the 1996 census.

Mission Employment documents obtained by the Herald clearly show interviewees' "Christian ethics" are an important part of the selection process, even if they were technically only classed as "desirable" attributes in an employee rather than "essential" in advertising material.

A willingness to commit to the Christian values and ethos of Mission Australia gets a weighting of 20 in the selection score sheet for a training and placement officer - the same weighting as the essential attribute of "demonstrated ability to develop, win and maintain new business", while relevant tertiary qualifications gets a weighting of 10.

The Federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act allows exemptions for religious organisations from provisions outlawing religious discrimination where "employment as a member of the staff of an institution" is done "in order to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion or creed".

Cr Ngo wants Mission Employment to remove all requirements that applicants commit to Christian values if it wishes to use the words EEO (equal employment opportunity) in its advertising.

A spokesman for Mission Australia said it was "very disappointed at Cr Ngo's statement, as our current recruitment policies ensure we obey the laws relating to EEO, human rights and the various anti-discrimination acts".

"Eighty per cent of our staff in our Fairfield and Cabramatta centres are from differing cultural backgrounds and represent a variety of religions.

"Both centres employ a large number of staff from non-Christian and non-English speaking backgrounds. . We are happy to discuss these issues with Cr Ngo and explain our non-discriminatory recruitment policies."