Ministers and lay staff in a Church of England diocese (region) can now have union representation. The English midlands diocese of Leicester has signed an agreement with the “Unite” Trade Union.
“Leicester diocese of the Church of England has signed an historic agreement with Unite to represent its clergy and lay staff,” the Union announced
“The agreement, negotiated by the Church of England Clergy & Employee Advocates (CEECA) covers clergy and lay staff. The CEECA is a distinct part of Unite’s wider faith workers’ branch.
“It is the first agreement of its kind ever to be signed by a Church of England diocese and ensures collective bargaining rights for clergy stipends and staff pay, as well as terms and conditions for both.”
The Leicester clergy join over 1.2 million Unite members in construction, manufacturing, transport, logistics and other sectors in the UK’s second-largest union.
Churches in Australia mostly maintain that being a minister is an “office,” not the sort of job that falls under employment law. This works well for some, particularly senior ministers or “rectors” in systems that give them tenure like a University academic. That means they are very hard to sack.
But the people who do much less well are junior staff or ministers with less security.
When conservative evangelical minister Hedley Fihaki took on the Uniting Church in the Fair Work Commission, he lost. Lawyers for the respondent, the Queensland Synod of the UCA, succeeded in their argument that the “Applicant [Fihaki] held a covenantal and spiritual position as a Minister of the Word, rather than an employment relationship with the Church, and therefore is not eligible as a person protected from unfair dismissal.”
This was despite Fihaki’s “letter of call” setting out a stipend, superannuation, provision of accommodation, sickness benefit and leave. But it also stated it was not an employment contract.
Professor Neil Foster, who runs the respected Law and Religion Australia website, has written on several cases of employment law interacting with church workers. He cites the Ermogenous case that involved an Orthodox Bishop in South Australia who wanted to assert his rights to paid annual leave and long service leave. The Bishop won in the case in the High Court and the Supreme Court of SA – but Chief Justice Doyle pointed out that it was an unusual case and unlikely to be repeated.
The effect of the Fihaki case disappointed the Faith Workers Alliance – an Australian clergy union – with their executive officer, Chris Bedding, telling members, “There were previous court cases used by the Anglican and Catholic churches which supported their position that faith workers are not employees, Now, the Uniting Church in Australia can also point to a case to support the same position – though it is unclear which Councils of the Church (if any) have endorsed this position.” But Bedding also pointed out it was not necessarily a binding precedent.
Uphold, a Sydney-based group seeking to support vulnerable ministers would like to see assistant ministers regarded as employees. While the Sydney Anglican Standing Committee supports that the traditional position of the assistant minister is not regarded as an employee. Lawyer Michael Terceiro, working with Uphold, believes that FWC provisions against bullying and unfair dismissal would apply to assistant ministers. As in the Ermogenous case, the degree of control a senior minister has over an assistant will play into the case.
Image Credit : Andrew Skudder Unite / Flickr