Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976

37 Excepted employments, etc.

(1) Parts II to IV shall not apply to or in relation to—

(a) any employment or occupation as a clergyman or minister of a religious denomination ;

(b) employment for the purposes of a private household; or

(c) employment as a teacher in a school.

(2) Part II shall not apply to or in relation to any employment or occupation, other than one mentioned in subsection (1), where the essential nature of the job requires it to be done by a person holding, or not holding, a particular religious belief.

(3) Parts III and IV, so far as they relate to discrimination on the ground of religious belief, shall not apply to or in relation to any employment or occupation, other than one mentioned in subsection (1), where the essential nature of the job requires it to be done by a person holding, or not holding, a particular religious belief; nor, so far as they relate to discrimination on the ground of political opinion, shall they apply to or in relation to an employment or occupation where the essential nature of the job requires it to be done by a person holding, or not holding, a particular political opinion.

(4) No provision of Parts II to IV shall apply—

(a) during the two years beginning with the commencement of this Act, to, or to employment by, an employer who employs not more than 25 persons in addition to any employed for the purposes of his private household; and

(b) during the year following those two years, to, or to employment by, an employer who employs not more than 10 persons in addition to any employed for the purposes of his private household.

(5) Subsection (1) is subject to the power conferred by section 39 to remove or limit the exception made by paragraph (c) of that subsection.