The Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998

Religion specific training

76.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), nothing in Parts III to V shall render unlawful any act done by—

(a)an employer; or

(b)a person who provides training services in connection with the training of persons for employment and is acting on behalf of an employer,

in relation to employment with the employer at a particular establishment in Northern Ireland, being an act done in or in connection with affording only persons of a particular religious belief access to training which would help to fit them for that employment where the conditions in paragraph (2) are satisfied at any time within the 12 months immediately preceding the doing of that act.

(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(a)that it appears to the Commission that—

(i)there are no persons of the religious belief in question among those engaged in that employment at the establishment; or

(ii)that the proportion of persons of that belief among those engaged in that employment at that establishment is small in comparison with the proportion of persons of that belief among all those employed by the employer there or among the population of the area from which that employer might reasonably be expected to recruit persons for employment at that establishment; and

(b)that the Commission has given its approval to the act.

(3) Paragraph (1) does not apply in relation to any act done by an employer, or a person providing training services on behalf of an employer, in relation to any person who is employed by the employer at the time when the act is done.