Catholic teachers who fear their private lives will come under the scrutiny of a new code of conduct are angry they will not be able to rely on anti-discrimination laws for protection.
The union representing Catholic teachers will meet with school employers on Monday to thrash out a new salary agreement, which includes a statement on lifestyle decisions.
Catholic Commission for Employment Relations executive director Tony Farley said the new enterprise agreement under negotiation would include an ethos provision outlining the church's expectations of its employees' behaviour.
Mr Farley said teachers and other school staff were expected to "support and uphold the mission, teaching and values" of the Catholic church. And it was expected that teachers would not influence students against church values.
However, he denied the ethos statement would intrude on the personal lives of teachers.
"When we employ 20,000 people, we are not prying into people's private lives and circumstances," Mr Farley said.
"What we are saying is, this is what we are about and this is what we expect of you in terms of supporting the church's teaching."
Independent Education Union secretary John Quessy said teachers feared their lifestyle decisions and positions on gay rights advocacy, abortion, in vitro fertilisation, divorce and remarriage, were under threat.
"Any employee has to avoid any public or overt behaviour, in or out of the workplace by word, action or lifestyle which is contrary to the mission, teaching or values of the Catholic church," he said.
"I don't just see that as supporting the ethos of Catholic education.
"We see this as being unnecessary and unreasonably intrusive".
Mr Quessy said anti-discrimination laws should be tightened to protect Catholic school teachers.
"We don't think there should be blanket exemptions from aspects of the anti-discrimination act," he said.
Mr Quessy said he agreed that wearing a gay rights T-shirt in a Catholic school could be construed as inflammatory, but the church should not intrude on the personal lives of its teachers outside the workplace.
Mr Farley said he was confident an agreement on the wording of the ethos could be negotiated with the union on Monday.
The negotiations are part of new enterprise agreement that include a new salary scale and a broad range of conditions.
