YFS gets legal exemption for domestic violence staff

A LOGAN-based community organisation has been granted an exemption from parts of the Anti-Discrimination Act.

YFS is a Logan-based organisation which helps victims and perpetrators of domestic violence.

A LOGAN-based community organisation, which counsels domestic violence perpetrators and victims, has been granted an exemption from the provisions of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991.

The Queensland Industrial Relations Tribunal granted YFS the exemptions last week. It allows the organisation to employ equal numbers of men and women in its behaviour change program for domestic violence perpetrators.

The program for men, called Responsible Men, has group sessions with a man and a woman as team leaders, as required under state government funding arrangements.

Those standards dictate that groups must have a male and female facilitator.

YFS chief executive Cath Bartolo said the exemption was a commonsense decision that allowed YFS to recruit men or women so it could maintain the gender balance in group programs.

She said the exemption allowed YFS to continue to deliver a perpetrator program that was effective, met professional standards and complied with contractual requirements.

YFS received exemptions from Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2012 and 2015. The latest is until 2023.