Teachers demand

Scan page 4

ibout 30 NATHE working with the vound or the of the Employment Protection About 30 NATHE members lobbied the National Council of the union last weekend demanding support for gay teachers in further and higher education.

The lobby was asking for support for resolutions from Regional Councils in East Anglia and Outer London insisting that NATHE produce a gay rights policy without delay.

We reprint below sections of the leaflet put out by the THE Gay Group at the lobby.

The National Council's response to this important lobby was not to reach the item on the agenda and to vote down working with the young mentally handicapped.

The document outlining this policy has not been made public but already one gay man has been transferred from the area of work for which he was qualified to a job in an old peoples' home.

A handyman in a Scottish youth camp, John Saunders, was sacked by his employers as soon as they found out that he was gay. He had always been totally discrete about his gayness, but an Employment Appeals Tribunal upheld the dis. missal although they agreed that there was no scientific evidence for such anti-gay prejudice.

A Salford drama lecturer, of the Employment Act.

A movement, however, is only as strong as its weakest link, and if the attacks on gays are successful today, there will be attacks on other workers tomorrow.

Atready the Saunders case is being used as a precedent against other workers appealing against unfair dismissal in industrial tribunals. No trade unionist can afford to ignore such sackings, particularly in a period of rising unemployment.

The 1977 NATHE Annual Conference was told that research was being undertaken into discrimination against gay lecturers. Where are the results of that research?

Scan page 5

PRESS, Wednesday Colin