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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 NOVEMBER 2021 NEWS JOIN OUR TEAM The Institute for Education would like to inform the public that it is currently seeking experts in the following area to develop and deliver accredited modules forming part of a degree programme. Child and Applied Educational Psychology Interested applicants are requested to apply online by following the below link by not later than Wednesday 17th November 2021. The selected persons will enter a contract-for-service with the Institute for Education. For more information on the above-mentioned expression of interest, kindly refer to Circular IfE 80/2021 on the Circulars 2021 section of the Institute for Education's website or by following the link: https://bit.ly/3vOTfWo. Institute for Education Martin Luther King Road Pembroke PBK 1990 +356 25982001 www.ife.gov.mt On election eve, Malta's equality law remains on backburner MATTHEW VELLA ONE of Malta's most far-reach- ing pieces of legislation has spent 12 months on the back- burner after being presented at committee stage in 2020, with its detractors lining up in a queue of critics intent the Equality Bill. Indeed it was a veritable cul- tural war that was waged last year against the ambitious rules to put a renewed onus on em- ployers to curb discriminatory practices. Malta's secular Chris- tian organisations and faith schools are at the forefront of this opposition. Piloted by former equality minister, now EU Commission- er Helena Dalli, the Bill was later stewarded by former par- liamentary secretary Rosianne Calleja and the justice ministry, and after her resignation, fell in- to the lap of Owen Bonnici. But it has been 12 months since a series of parliamentary committee hearings for the Bill's adversaries – like pro-life Life Network Foundation and the Catholic schools commission – who claim they will be prevent- ed from employing Catholics to teaching positions. That's because the law presents them with a challenge: candi- dates to a teaching profession in which the Catholic faith is not a "genuine requirement", could be able to challenge schools' employment of less meritorious candidates. Malta's chief employment rulebook, the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, includes so-called 'protect- ed characteristics' where any discriminatory treatment on marital status, pregnancy or po- tential pregnancy, sex, colour, disability, religious conviction, political opinion or member- ship in a trade union or in an employers' association is illegal. That law already gives leeway to employers on jobs that re- quire a particular skill-set when "such a characteristic consti- tutes a genuine and determin- ing occupational requirement provided that the objective is legitimate and the requirement is proportionate." For example, an ambulance driver would be required to be able-bodied enough to drive an ambulance in high-pressure situations, therefore 'excluding' persons with certain disabilities. The same rules allow ethos- based employers, like church and faith schools, to recruit people for a role which objec- tively requires the employee to hold the same faith. The Equality Bill reinforces the EIRA's provisions but says the schools can differentiate "limitedly" on the basis of faith if there is a "sufficiently genu- ine and legitimate justification". That means that it is only on those roles in which there is a genuine, legitimate, and justi- fied purpose – for example, the teaching of religious education – that faith may be considered as a factor in their recruitment. But the Equality Bill also would make it illegal to dis- criminate against anyone when it comes to access to goods and services, advertising, financial services, education, trade un- ion or association affiliation, jobs and recruiters, or carrying out business. It will mean that nobody can get "less favourable treatment" when it comes to supplying goods and services. Critics claim the law stops doctors from refusing medi- cal practices that are contrary to their faith: pro-life activist Paul Vincenti cited examples of doctors not allowed to con- scientiously object to provide services to same-sex couples was "communism"; while Life Network chairperson Miriam Sciberras claimed that "threat- ening people into compliance" with equality "is tantamount to brainwashing and Marxist in- doctrination." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt A poacher has been caught trap- ping birds illegally 24 hours after he was convicted for the same offence, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said to- day. The NGO said one of its films yesterday morning filmed and reported a man who was trap- ping finches on an unregistred trapping site and without any permit in Miġra I-Ferħa. "The police responded very quickly, arrested the trapper and confiscated 20 live finches as well as a large set of clap nets. Our video evidence clearly shows that it was the same person who on Thursday – barely 24 hours before being caught again – was convicted for illegal trap- ping during the closed season in spring 2019," CABS press officer Axel Hirschfeld said. "It makes him the 'Usain Bolt' of repeat offenders," Hirschfeld added. The police confirmed to CABS that the man is a repeat offender who stood trial the day before he was caught again. The case from 2019 was based on a report of a CABS team who filmed the man red-hand- ed on 19 March 2019, also in Miġra I-Ferħa. On Thursday this case was being brought at court where Magistrate Elaine Mercie- ca fined him €1,500 and also or- dered the revocation of his trap- ping licence. "Apparently the penalty did not deter this man to continue with his selfish and illegal hobby. However, when he was arrested yesterday we could see that he was visibly shaken as he did not expect to be nabbed again so soon," Hirschfeld said. Bird trapper arrested 24 hours after conviction on same offence