NSW approves Boeing workplace discrimination. 01/04/2005. ABC News Online — Interesting little episode for Boeing Australia. Probably easier to make this work there than here in the US.

Defence contractor Boeing has been given approval to discriminate against employees on the grounds of their national origin by the New South Wales Government.

Boeing recently won a multi-million dollar defence contract with the United States, but to meet security requirements the contractor needs to provide information on the heritage of its employees.

Boeing’s spokesperson Ken Morton says the three-year exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Act means workers at its Bankstown plant will need to be approved by the US State Department if they want to continue working.

“We need to give them a list of the origins of the nationalities of our workers working on mainly two programs,” he said.

“What the State Department decided to do with that information is up to them, we have no visibility on that.”

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is calling on the Federal Government to immediately intervene over the decision.