A non-binary teacher at a Melbourne Catholic school says they will take a fight to have their preferred pronouns used in the workplace all the way to the High Court.
The teacher’s union, which represents 75,000 educators from Australian religious schools, says the case could open the floodgates to gender and sex discrimination disputes around the country.
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Myka Sanders, a teacher at Sacred Heart Girls’ College in Oakleigh, asked the school two years ago to remove the title “Mr” and use their preferred pronouns on timetables, emails and correspondence at the school.
The Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) intervened and refused the request, the Independent Education Union (IEU) said.
Sanders has lodged a dispute at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal with the backing of the union.
But MACS, the largest Catholic employer in the state, deployed a jurisdictional argument, claiming the state legislation on which the application to VCAT relied was overridden by federal law, so it could not be heard by the Victorian tribunal.
The state’s Equal Opportunity Act protects LGBTQ+ Victorians from discrimination in religious schools, except in limited circumstances considered “proportionate”.
The federal Labor Party promised before the last election to limit exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act for faith-based employers that discriminate against school staff. However, the Albanese government has yet to legislate that change, and the broad exemptions for religious schools remain in place.
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