Title PhD
Flemish private educations institutions as religious-ethos organizations: an analysis of their unique position on the labour market.
Research field/ discipline
Labour Law, Discrimination Law, Education Law.
Introduction PhD
Flemish private educational institutions are supposed to be one of the most high-profile religious-ethos organizations, implying that they hold a unique position in terms of limiting the fundamental rights of their personnel, however because of recent and contrasting case law of the European Court of Justice and a lack of knowledge on the position of Flemish private education and their personnel's status, further research and the establishment of a clear theoretical framework is necessary.
Abstract
Religious-ethos organizations have held a unique position in terms of limiting their personnel's fundamental rights due to their right to autonomy and self-determination. The importance of this privilege on personnel recruitment and personnel policy should not be underestimated. Indeed, it implies a more precarious status of religious-ethos organizations' personnel as compared to the personnel of neutral organizations. However, recent case law of the European Court of Justice appears to deviate from this position, making it easier for neutral organizations to implement a neutrality policy than for religious-ethos organizations to apply a personnel policy adapted to their specific religion or belief.
Grant-aided private education is at the center of this debate, as private education is supposed to be one of the most high-profile religious-ethos organizations and the place of religion versus neutrality in education has been highly controversial. Furthermore, there is a significant shortage of teachers, which is one of the main reasons for the declining quality of education, worsened by the unclear and unattractive legal status of teaching staff. This legal status is even more precarious when taking into account the privileges private education has in terms of limiting the fundamental rights of their teaching staff.
However, little research has been conducted on this matter. The objective of the research is therefore to establish a theoretical framework and to analyze and clarify the position of Flemish private education. It is expected that a systematic review of the European, Belgian and German state-of-the-art, as well as a qualitative coding study of the ECJ's case law on occupational requirements, will allow us to gain an in-depth insight into the possible limitatiwhether's fundamental rights by Flemish private education institutions, and whether or not this places Flemish education in a privileged position as compared to neutral organizations in the public and private sector. The findings of this research could contribute to a legislative proposal as to clarify the position of both organizations and employees.