APPENDIX 4 -ACCS/ASTI/TUI AGREEMENT on EQUALITY of OPPORTUNITY in COMMUNITY and COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLS [dated 10th November, 1992 ]
The ACS, ASTI and TUI are committed to the implementation of equality of opportunity for teachers within schools and as a means of ensuring that arrangements and facilities within schools reflect this, recommend that the following procedures and policies are adopted:
1. Each Board of Management of Community and Comprehensive schools should declare itself to be an equal opportunity employer. This would show a commitment to employ policies which do not discriminate on the grounds of sex or marital status and which do not indirectly impede equality of opportunity. (See EEA Code of Practice, 1.10).
2. All persons who handle job applications in any form or capacity or who give information on job vacancies (including, for example, telephonists, receptionists, etc) should be trained to ensure that they do not state or imply that members of one sex or a particular marital status will be favoured for a job. In selecting candidates for employment, it is unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex or marital status. Both the criteria applied and the arrangements made in the handling of applications must be non-discriminatory. All persons handling applications should be made fully familiar with the requirements of the employment equality Act 1977 and the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act 1974 and the provisions of the Code of the Employment Equality Agency.(See EEA Code of Practice, 5.1 & 5.2)
3. Teaching Appointments:
Recruitment and Selection
(a) Advertisements for teaching posts and Principalships/Vice-Principalships should include a statement to the effect that applications are invited from male and female candidates or that the school is an equal opportunity employer. In the case of advertisements for teaching positions, the subject or subject range should be specified.
(b) Application forms if in use, should be designed for the purposes of establishing whether or not a candidate’s professional qualifications, expertise and experience meet the requirements of the post and should be devoid of questions relating to marital status, number and ages of children and histories of recent absences or illnesses.
(c) Boards of Management should ensure that short-listing is undertaken in a manner that conforms to the requirements of the legislation. Records should be retained to demonstrate, if required, that the procedures employed complied with the requirements of the Employment Equality Act, 1977.
(d) All personnel involved in interviews should be trained in the avoidance of discrimination.
(e) Where possible, interview boards should include persons of both sexes. All parties involved in nominating persons to Selection Committees should note this when making such nominations. The interviews should be designed so as to enable the candidate to demonstrate how he/she is suited to a particular appointment by virtue of professional qualifications, skills and experience. The interview board shall not seek information on the marital status or child-minding arrangements of the applicant. Records should be retained as evidence, if necessary, that the selection committee adhered to the requirements of the equality legislation.
4. Work Assignments
Subject to existing contracts and agreements, male and female teachers should have equal access to the full range of teaching and administrative experience available in the school.
Particular assignments such as responsibility for discipline or responsibility for uniforms should not be seen as the exclusive preserve of one sex.
In accordance with the recommendations of the Employment Equality Agency “Code of Practice: Equality of Opportunity in Employment” and existing legislation, school management should encourage applications from the under-represented sex for particular types of work and should provide opportunities for training and/or work experience for the teachers of that sex to enable them to assume the appropriate responsibilities.
5. Career Development
Career development is recognised as being the responsibility of employers and training courses should be maintained in order to reinforce staff confidence in the selection procedures for employees. The policy of school management should be to enable both male and female teachers to acquire experience which would afford them equal opportunities in terms of promotion.
The school management should ensure that information pertaining to in-service training and attainment of further professional qualifications is disclosed to male and female teachers irrespective of marital or religious/clerical status.
The school management should ensure that in releasing or nominating staff for (further) training the concept of equality of opportunity is implemented. Similarly, a record of staff who have availed of such, should be maintained.
6. Other Facilities:
(a) Career breaks and leave of absence should be made available to staff for the purposes of further study or domestic demands irrespective of sex or marital status.
(b) Working time should be organised in a way which does not conflict with the requirements of the Employment Equality Act, 1977.
7. Pregnancy
Additional leave should be made available to teachers to enable them to attend ante-natal clinics, post-natal clinics and child birth classes. The normal substitution arrangements for absent colleagues will apply.
8 Créche Facilities
The position regarding the provision of créche facilities in schools will be separately reviewed.
9. Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment is a form of sex discrimination. In 1985 the Labour Court established that “Freedom from Sexual Harassment” is a “condition of work” which an employee of either sex is entitled to expect. Boards of Management aim to ensure a working environment free from sexual harassment.
10. Equality of Opportunity and the Pupil
School management and staffs should take cognisance of the need to promote equality of opportunity between sexes:
o in the distribution of responsibilities to teachers and to male and female pupils;
o in the provision of facilities and selection of materials for particular subjects; and
o by encouraging male and female pupils to consider and avail of non-traditional subject options and in advising them on career selections.