EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Concerns about fair employment and other equality matters are
central issues in the continuing search for a lasting solution
to Northern Ireland’s political conflict that in its latest
iteration has lasted for three decades. Catholics historically
have faced discrimination from the Protestant majority in Northern
Ireland. Irish Americans and others worried about employment discrimination
against Catholics in Northern Ireland have championed a code of
conduct for firms operating there called the MacBride principles.
The principles were drawn up in 1984 and have been used as a vehicle
to pressure the British government to strengthen anti-discrimination
laws in Northern Ireland, most significantly in 1989 but also
in a more recent round of reform efforts that culminated in a
new law that passed the British Parliament in 1998. Responding
to vocal and well organized Irish American constituents, 17 U.S.
states and more than 30 cities and counties passed laws during
the late 1980s and early 1990s that require pension funds to support
the principles through shareholder action and investment decisions.
U.S. companies account for a significant proportion of foreign
investment in Northern Ireland and have just under under 20,000
employees there. Catholics and Protestants appear to be fairly
represented when U.S. companies are considered as a whole, but
there are a number of firms where this is not the case. Pressure
for affirmative action to increase Catholic (or sometimes Protestant)
representation at these firms comes from both the MacBride principles
and Northern Ireland’s fair employment laws. About half the
approximately 118 U.S. companies in Northern Ireland cooperate
with IRRC efforts to monitor their fair employment records; 56
of these firms have formal agreements to do so as part of efforts
to implement the MacBride principles.
Investor advocates of the MacBride principles have sponsored
shareholder resolutions asking companies to support the principles
since the mid-1980s. Support for the resolutions tends to be high
relative to other social issues proposals, as many public and
trade union pension funds back the principles. The New York City
pension funds, coordinated by the city’s comptroller, are
the primary sponsors. Cosponsors include the New York State Common
Retirement Fund, the state of Minnesota and religious groups affiliated
with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
Major Recent Developments
- The British government suspended Northern Ireland’s
power-sharing government on October 14, 2002, because of alleged
IRA spying. A few weeks earlier, unionists threatened to end
their participation in the regional government in January unless
the IRA agreed to disband. The prognosis for local rule remains
unclear but elections for the Assembly may occur in May.
- Further Northern Ireland police reform legislation is being
considered in the British Parliament, in response to continued
calls from nationalists to implement all the recommendations
of the 1999 Patten commission.
- Sectarian violence, particularly on the loyalist side, continues.
While the main IRA is still officially abiding by its ceasefire,
the Ulster Defense Association, the largest loyalist group, is
not. A UDA feud claimed several lives in 2002. Loyalist political
parties have imploded.
- Unionists are expressing broad disenchantment with the historic
Good Friday peace accord and community relations between Catholics
and Protestants have deteriorated during the last year.
- Two important members of the Human Rights Commission, including
MacBride principles sponsor Inez McCormick, resigned in fall
2002, saying the commission had lost its way. A bill of rights,
which the commission is to craft under the terms of the peace
agreement, has yet to emerge.
- Efforts to craft a single equality bill for Northern Ireland,
combining all existing laws on religion, race, gender and disability
bias, have stalled. No bill for Northern Ireland Assembly consideration
is expected before 2004.
- The Equality Commission came under fire for its handling
of support for discrimination complaints at the Fair Employment
Tribunal in fall 2002.
- MacBride campaigners have a new interest in U.S. franchises
in Northern Ireland, after questions arose about a loyalist paramilitary
mural on a Belfast Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in September
2002.
Facts on File
- There are now 65 publicly traded U.S. companies with more
than 10 employees in Northern Ireland. After years of steady
increases, overall U.S. employment dropped by nearly 10 percent
in 2002, down to just under 20,000 workers—largely because
of layoffs, plant closures and sell-offs, which in a change from
the past were not balanced by any substantial acquisitions.
- Catholic representation at U.S. companies in Northern Ireland
grew to 43.4 percent in 2002, compared with 42.1 percent in 2001
and 43.1 percent in 2000. Protestants working for U.S. firms
appear to have lost jobs at twice the rate of Catholics.
- Catholics now appear to be underrepresented at 12 U.S. firms
and Protestants at nine. Most but not all of these firms are
taking affirmative action; a few have made no progress towards
fair participation.
- As of November 2002, there were 64 discrimination complaints
pending against the subsidiaries or affiliates of U.S. firms.
U.S. companies currently in Northern Ireland have lost or settled
a total of 30 cases at the Fair Employment Tribunal.
- Sixty percent of U.S. companies in Northern Ireland responded
to IRRC's annual survey in 2002, up a bit from previous years.
- Catholics account for 39.5 percent of significant Northern
Ireland employers in 2001, according to the most recent data,
up from 34.9 in 1990. Catholics account for about 43 percent
of the economically active population.
- The 2001 census showed that Catholics account for 44 percent
of the overall Northern Ireland population, less than the expected
46 percent some had projected.
- Unemployment in Northern Ireland at the end of 2002 was the
same as at the start of the year—6.3 percent, after falling
gradually since 1992.
- Catholics are about twice as likely as Protestants to be
unemployed. Catholic men are also more likely to be unemployed
for longer periods than Protestant men.
- The MacBride principles, modeled on the Sullivan principles
for South Africa, were proposed in 1984 by Nobel Peace Prize
winner Sean MacBride and amplified in 1986 to respond to criticisms.
- Shareholders have reached agreements on MacBride implementation
with 56 firms that currently have employees, affiliates or franchises
in Northern Ireland. Eight companies reached agreements in 2002.
- Seventeen U.S. states and at least 30 cities and counties
have laws that invoke the MacBride principles on the books. A
majority of all U.S. state pension fund monies are committed
to supporting the principles.
-
^Table of Contents
I. THE SHAREHOLDER CAMPAIGN
The 2003 proxy season marks the 19th year for the shareholder
campaign in support of resolutions asking firms to implement the
MacBride principles. Religious groups filed the first resolution
in 1985, to General Motors. The New York City pension funds took
up the campaign in 1986. Seven of the resolutions filed so far
for 2003 ask companies to make lawful efforts to implement the
MacBride principles, as in the past. The eighth, to Yum Brands,
asks it to urge its Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee to implement
the principles.
New York City and its co-filers have withdrawn a number of
proposals in recent years. A total of 56 companies with subsidiaries,
affiliates or franchises currently in Northern Ireland have reached
agreements with shareholder proponents on implementing the MacBride
principles. There have been 79 agreements in all, but some companies
no longer have ties to Northern Ireland.
The 2003 shareholder proposals
ask companies to "make
all possible lawful efforts to implement and/or increase activity
on each of the nine MacBride principles," or to urge the
company’s franchisee to do so. Three proposals were filed
at companies that have not received resolutions on this subject
before—Danaher, TeleTech Holdings and Yum
Brands. The resolution at Danaher was withdrawn when the company
agreed to implement the principles. The rest are resubmissions
and received the following levels of support in 2002 and 2001:
| |
2001
|
2002
|
|
Baker Hughes |
15.6
|
11.2%
|
|
Crane |
--
|
12.9%
|
|
Interpublic Group |
--
|
11.2%
|
|
Raytheon |
--
|
13.1%
|
|
TJX |
16.3
|
19.2%
|
The resolutions have a broad array of proponents. Cosponsors
of the New York City-led resolutions include the New York State
Common Retirement Fund, the Minnesota State Board of Investment
and religious groups affiliated with the Interfaith Center on
Corporate Responsibility. Proposals on this issue usually receive
relatively high votes in comparison with proposals on other social
issues because the majority of U.S. public pension fund monies
are committed to support for the resolutions by mandates imposed
by MacBride laws.
Past Resolutions on This Issue
|
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
|
Voted on |
6
|
5
|
7
|
| Withdrawn |
1 |
6 |
6 |
| Average support |
16.5% |
17.5% |
12.8% |
- ^Table of Contents
II. THE CONFLICT IN NORTHERN IRELAND
- Background
- The Road to the 1998 Peace Accord
- The Good Friday Agreement
- Post Agreement Developments
Northern Ireland, made up of six of the nine counties of the
historic province of Ulster, was formed when Ireland was partitioned
between the largely Catholic south and the largely Protestant
northeast in 1921. Partition followed a protracted Irish struggle
for home rule. Of Northern Ireland’s current population of
1.69 million people, 44 percent identify themselves as Catholics,
53 percent as Protestants. The remaining 3 percent claim no religion.
Since 1969, conflict between the two communities has resulted
in more than 3,000 deaths. The conflict is not mainly about religion;
rather, it is a clash between the conflicting national identities
of Irish-identified Catholic "nationalists" and British-identified
Protestant "unionists." Harder-line supporters of a
unified Irish republic are called "republicans," and
militant advocates of protecting Ulster’s place in the United
Kingdom are called "loyalists."
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement established a government for
Northern Ireland with an assembly of local politicians and an
executive branch of ministers. It began governing in earnest in
May 2000, but after working on and off since, the British government
suspended the body yet again in mid-October 2002. An unresolved
issue remains IRA arms decommissioning, although the immediate
crisis that precipitated the latest collapse was the discovery
of a purported IRA spy ring. But unionists had threatened to bring
down the government anyway by January, unless the IRA disbanded.
(Section VII below describes the events of 2002 in more
detail.)
Background
After partition in 1921, the southern part of the island became
the Irish Free State and then, in 1949, the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom, with a
separate parliament and the authority to govern its own affairs.
For 50 years, until London imposed direct rule amid sectarian
violence in 1972, Northern Ireland was governed by one party—the
Protestant-dominated Unionist Party. Many Protestants in Northern
Ireland strongly insist on maintaining their connection to the
United Kingdom and refuse to participate in any all-Irish political
arrangement. On the other hand, many Catholics in the north insist
as strongly that Ireland should be a unified nation under a single
republican government.
During the late 1960s, a movement for Catholic civil rights
arose in Northern Ireland, focused on fighting discrimination
in housing and employment and on a universal suffrage—voting
rights in local elections were limited to property owners, and
Catholics were less likely to own property—and an end to
gerrymandering. Unionist leaders made some reform initiatives,
but they were seen as inadequate by Catholics and civil rights
activists even as they split the Unionist Party. In an atmosphere
of demonstrations and increasing sectarian violence in 1969, the
British army was called in to restore order, and the British government
assumed ultimate authority over all security forces in Northern
Ireland in August 1969. The British government also recommended
a reform program to cover voting rights, legislation for equal
employment practices, and a more equitable distribution of housing.
The ‘Troubles’ since 1969: Despite British
recommendations for reform, violence worsened in Northern Ireland,
and Protestant paramilitary groups and the Irish Republican Army
became much more active. The IRA had led the fight against the
British in the war that led to establishment of the Irish Free
State, and in the Irish civil war of 1922-23, it violently resisted
the treaty that partitioned Ireland. The IRA has been visible
in various periods since then fighting for a united Irish republic,
but in the mid-1960s, it was nearly dormant, at least in a military
sense. When the Catholic community in Belfast came under assault
from Protestants in 1969, leading hundreds to abandon their homes,
Catholics could rely neither on local police forces, dominated
by Protestants and frequently sectarian, nor on the IRA; the graffiti
said IRA stood for "I Ran Away."
Galvanized in part by this accusation of impotence, the IRA
reemerged in the north of Ireland largely in the form of the Provisional
IRA, one of two factions resulting from a split in 1969. The Provisional
IRA rebuilt a military capability, in part with support from money
and weapons supplied by contacts in the United States. Another
significant actor on the nationalist side is the Irish National
Liberation Army (INLA). During this same period, the Ulster Defense
Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) emerged
as leaders among Protestant paramilitary groups dedicated to defend
and avenge their constituency; these groups often sought their
vengeance through random sectarian attacks.
Violence peaked in the mid-1970s, but continued until 1994
at lower levels and there have been occasional killings since
despite official paramilitary ceasefires. There were about 80
deaths annually in the years before a series of ceasefires began
in 1994, and substantial disruption of life in Northern Ireland
(and at times in cities in England) caused by bombings and bomb
threats. Up until the early 1990s, the IRA was responsible for
more deaths than other groups, but then a rise in loyalist paramilitary
militancy changed the picture, with loyalists responsible for
more deaths in the last couple of years before the ceasefires.
The British government has used harsh and at times indiscriminate
tactics—and has been accused of serious abrogations of basic
civil rights—in its fight against the IRA. Among other British
actions that the nationalist community has strongly protested
are the use of internment without trial in the 1970s and other
abridgments of rights of the accused. Indiscriminate internment
in the 1970s is said to have marked a whole generation of young
men in Catholic west Belfast. Police use of plastic bullets to
control protests has come under particular fire, most recently
during the political disturbances of the last several summers.
Observers from the local Committee on the Administration of Justice
have found that the overwhelming majority of plastic bullets have
been fired at Catholics, although both Catholics and Protestants
have been involved in rioting.
The current British government has taken a number of steps
to address complaints about the security forces since it came
to power in May 1997 and was reelected in 2001. The most high
profile steps have included the reduction of troop levels in Northern
Ireland, the removal of British Army foot patrols, and steps to
change the police force, which is still overwhelmingly dominated
by Protestants.
The heavy military presence in west Belfast and other Catholic
areas until recently has led to deep-seated resentments typical
of communities under military occupation; these attitudes have
not been wholly laid to rest. The local Ulster Defense Regiment
(UDR)—which in 1992 merged with another regiment and became
the Royal Irish Rangers—and the Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC) have come in for much criticism for alleged harassment of
the nationalist community over the years. The nationalist resentment
is shared in part by working class Protestant communities that
have produced recruits for loyalist paramilitaries and have been
subject to an army presence. Authorities have worked to transform
the RUC into a peace-time police force, but tensions about policing
and police reform remain a key point of contention. A police reform
law passed Parliament in November 2000; one of its key provisions
is the recruitment of Catholics and Protestants in equal numbers.
The RUC has come under fierce criticism for its handling of
loyalist marches. Criticism over handling of the march at Drumcree
in July 1996 was especially fierce. A new Parades Commission was
set up in 1997 to address ongoing issues related to sectarian
marching and parades. Controversies connected to its decisions
continue, however.
The British Labour government is taking some steps to address
human rights, in a departure from past policy. It sponsored a
bill passed by Parliament that enshrines in law the European Convention
on Human Rights, and abolished the policy of internment without
trial, which though it has not been used since the 1970s had remained
on the books. The new Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
is now working on a bill of rights.
Rulings at the European Court of Human Rights against the British
government or its institutions in the 1990s generally helped to
sustain the view that human rights have not always been respected
in Northern Ireland. In September 1995, the European Human Rights
Court found Britain guilty of breaching human rights in the shooting
of three IRA members in Gibraltar in 1988. Further, in February
1996, the court awarded a convicted IRA member £15,000,
saying that the RUC violated his human rights by refusing him
access to an attorney. But the European Commission rejected a
case against the British government by relatives of 14 people
shot dead by paratroopers in Derry in 1972. (The Commission must
back any case that goes to the European Court.) This "Bloody
Sunday" incident is being reexamined in an inquiry set up
by the government under Lord Saville, which began holding hearings
in 2000. The detailed and sustained local press coverage of the
inquiry illustrates how the past continues to resonate deeply
today. Government abuses were sharply reduced before the 1994
ceasefires, under pressure from Amnesty International, Helsinki
Watch and the Committee on the Administration of Justice.
Moving toward local rule: From when the British government
imposed "direct rule" from London on Northern Ireland
in 1972 until the present arrangements, there were a number of
efforts to reintroduce local or "devolved" rule; the
new Northern Ireland Assembly is the latest and has come the closest
to succeeding in the long term. Direct rule was lifted briefly
in 1974, and Northern Ireland was governed by a joint executive
of moderates from both communities. That government was brought
down, however, by a unionist strike.
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 marked a watershed in Northern
Irish politics, paving the way for a normalization of political
affairs and a more direct role for locally elected officials in
governing the province, although some affairs are still handled
from Westminster. The agreement was preceded by the Anglo-Irish
Agreement of 1985, which gave the Irish Republic a consultative
role in the affairs of Northern Ireland for the first time since
partition. In the agreement, Dublin for the first time recognized
British sovereignty over Northern Ireland and agreed that "any
change in the status of Northern Ireland would only come
about with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern
Ireland." The British and Irish government also collaborated
on the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 and the subsequent Framework
Document, which laid the groundwork for the talks that produced
the Good Friday accord.
Although consent has been the linchpin of agreements between
the British and Irish governments since 1985, many nationalists,
particularly IRA hard-liners, have yet to accept a requirement
of consent by a majority of the people of Northern Ireland as
presently constituted. The republican view has been that it is
up to the people of Ireland as a whole to decide. While the Catholic,
nationalist population of Northern Ireland is expected eventually
to form the majority, it appears that for some years to come there
will be a firm majority (including a sizable number of Catholics)
that supports continued union with Britain.
Political parties: The divisions about political affiliation
and Northern Ireland’s political future are reflected in
electoral patterns. In recent elections, four political parties
have consistently gained the most votes: two of which represent
unionist constituencies and two that reflect nationalist views.
The major unionist parties are the Ulster Unionist Party
(UUP)—also known as the Official Unionist Party—led
by David Trimble, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP),
led by the Rev. Ian Paisley. Trimble has held the highest political
office as First Minister, when the Assembly is in session. By
most measures the UUP is the largest party in the province, although
it has lost ground in the last two elections, drawing 26.8 percent
in the 2001 parliamentary election, down from just under 33 percent
in the 1997 general election. It is the party of the Protestant
establishment and has close ties with the Conservative (Tory)
Party in Britain. The UUP has 28 delegates in the Northern Ireland
Assembly and 6 MPs, down from the 10 MPs it gained in the 1997
parliamentary election.
While the UUP has more general support, DUP leader Ian Paisley
repeatedly wins a plurality when he stands for election in the
province-wide contests for the European Parliament. The party
reluctantly participates in the executive, although it objects
to sharing the cabinet with Sinn Fein. It has recently made a
strong showing in the polls and gained ground in the 2001 elections,
grabbing 22.5 percent of the parliamentary vote and five MP seats,
up from only two. In 1997, it earned 20 seats and only 18.1 percent
support in the Assembly election.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), led by
Mark Durkan, had the support of a majority of the Catholic population
until it lost ground to Sinn Fein in 2001, garnering 21 percent
of the vote. It still holds the second largest number of Assembly
seats, however, and Durkan held the second highest political office,
that of Deputy First Minister, until the Assembly’s suspension
in October 2002. The party actually earned the highest proportion
of the 1998 vote, but because of a complex proportional representation
formula came away with only 24 Assembly delegates, four fewer
than the UUP. In the 2001 elections its number of MPs held steady
at three. The SDLP, and its former leader John Hume in particular,
have been credited in many circles as key players in starting
and winning the Good Friday Agreement. The party’s constituency
is grounded in the growing Catholic middle class and business
community.
Sinn Fein, the political party associated with the IRA,
has become increasingly popular with the electorate and earned
its highest vote yet in the 2001 elections, with 21.7 percent
of the parliamentary vote. In the 1996 forum election it earned
just 15.5 percent of the vote, which rose to 20.7 percent in local
elections in 2001. In 2001, its number of MPs doubled, from two
to four. Sinn Fein is particularly strong among working class
Catholics in Belfast and in some border areas. Its president is
Gerry Adams. The Sinn Fein MPs do not take their seats in the
British Parliament because doing so requires an oath of loyalty
to the Queen, which they eschew.
A number of smaller parties also have representation in Northern
Ireland politics, including the tiny U.K. Unionist Party and the
Alliance Party.
Northern Ireland parties have 18 Members of Parliament in London.
UK-wide parties generally do not contest elections in Northern
Ireland.
- ^Top of Section
The Road to the 1998 Peace Accord
The road to the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which still
holds the promise of ending the cycle of conflict despite serious
difficulties over paramilitary arms disposition, government demilitarization
and police reform, began in the early 1990s. During 1993, SDLP
leader John Hume, a bitter critic of IRA violence, had discussions
with Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein that helped form the basis for the
Downing Street Declaration four months later in December, in which
the British and Irish governments set out a framework for peace
talks and inclusion of Sinn Fein. The declaration proved to be
the foundation for further talks that ultimately produced the
Good Friday Agreement.
Ceasefires: The IRA announced a "complete cessation
of military operations" in August 1994, saying "an opportunity
to secure a just and lasting settlement has been created."
Loyalist paramilitaries followed the IRA’s suit in October,
opening a window of opportunity for political talks to end "the
troubles" of the previous 25 years.
Immediately after the ceasefires, political leaders began what
has proved to be an enduring disagreement over what to do about
paramilitary arms caches. While the IRA and loyalist groups said
they should be included in negotiations by dint of the ceasefires
and their electoral mandates, they were unwilling to hand in weapons,
saying this was tantamount to a surrender—anathema in the
republican and loyalist lexicons. But unionist leaders said that
after 25 years of violence, the IRA had to hand in its weapons
to prove good faith. Discussions preliminary to formal talks went
on throughout 1995, without resolution of this issue. Popular
support for the ceasefires led some to believe neither side could
return to violence, but tensions were strong between IRA factions,
causing the leadership to fear a split.
U.S. President Bill Clinton’s November 1995 trip to Northern
Ireland buoyed both sides and prompted an Anglo-Irish call for
all-party peace talks by the end of February 1996, and simultaneous
work on decommissioning arms through an international body headed
by retired U.S. Sen. George Mitchell. It was hoped that this "twin-track"
approach would help to break the 18-month long deadlock.
The political talks: Even as preparations got underway
for talks, the IRA set off a large bomb in London, dashing hopes
for early progress. Despite the eruption of new violence in 1996
after the IRA abandoned its ceasefire, the formal talks that produced
the Good Friday Agreement began in June 1996, chaired by Mitchell.
Both the British and Irish governments fielded negotiating teams,
in addition to the Northern Ireland participants.
A basic condition set for participation in the talks was a
commitment to a set of six principles defined by Mitchell’s
international commission in January 1996, which included commitment
to exclusively democratic means and total disarmament by paramilitaries.
The participants also agreed that any accord they reached would
be subject to referenda in Northern Ireland and the Republic,
and to ratification by the British and Irish parliaments.
Slow progress: Procedural wrangling over the terms under
which Sinn Fein would be welcome consumed 1996 and much of 1997.
Another factor that hampered the British government’s ability
to press forward was Conservative Party Prime Minister John Major’s
slim hold on a fractious Parliament. U.K. voters threw out the
Conservatives in May 1997, electing a Labour government for the
first time since 1979 with a huge majority, putting the new prime
minister, Tony Blair, in a strong position to push for change
in Northern Ireland. Blair’s new Northern Ireland Secretary
of State pressed forward energetically with political talks, bringing
new momentum to the peace process.
The election results gave a new shot in the arm to the negotiations.
A second IRA ceasefire came in July after the British government
responded to key concerns of Sinn Fein on arms decommissioning,
human rights, the transfer of prisoners and police reform. Sinn
Fein subsequently joined the negotiations. Talks participants
formally agreed to a decommissioning plan in late July, although
hard-line unionist parties rejected the plan and stayed away from
the table when the rest at last sat down together, in September
1997, after agreeing to the Mitchell principles. An arms commission
was set up then as well, headed by John de Chastelain, a former
Canadian general.
- ^Top of Section
The Good Friday Agreement
Politicians finally reached a peace accord in April 1998, dubbed
the Good Friday Agreement, hoping to pave the way for a permanent
end to the current cycle of conflict. Voters in Northern Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland approved the agreement in May, and
those in Northern Ireland also went to the polls to elect delegates
to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, which was to take power
back to Northern Ireland from Westminster.
The hopes the peace accord raised were tempered by further
tragedy in 1998. During the July marching season, three young
Catholic brothers were killed when their home in a Protestant
area was firebombed by loyalist militants. In August, a dissident
republican paramilitary group known as the Real IRA set off a
bomb in a shopping area in Omagh, a mixed town in the rural western
part of the province, which killed 29 people. These events, while
dismaying, were viewed by many as the final horrific chapter of
"the troubles."
Northern Ireland received more positive attention from the
world in October 1998, when Social Democratic and Labour Party
leader John Hume and Ulster Unionist Party leader and Assembly
First Minister David Trimble received the Nobel Peace Prize for
their roles in reaching the Good Friday Agreement.
The Northern Ireland Act, which implements the Good Friday
Agreement, became law in mid-November 1998. It codified how the
U.K. government transferred to the new Northern Ireland Assembly
most functions of the Northern Ireland Office, which governed
through a phalanx of civil servants from 1972 to 1999. The Assembly
began sitting in shadow form in September 1998, although controversy
over the composition of its executive leadership, tied to disagreement
over arms decommissioning, meant it did not begin formal sessions.
Its devolved status makes it subsidiary to Westminster, which
retains some functions of state. The plan incorporates a series
of checks and balances to preclude veto power by the unionist
majority on issues of deep concern to the nationalist minority.
Other new institutions established by the Northern Ireland
Act include a Human Rights Commission and an Equality Commission,
into which the Fair Employment Commission was subsumed. Further,
it set up a North/South Ministerial Council to consider the six
areas, including business and trade development, in which Northern
Ireland has formal cooperation with the Irish Republic.
- ^Top of Section
Post Agreement Developments
With a new peace agreement on the books, and apparent accord
on the shape of the new government, the political parties ended
1998 with clear indications they would begin governing in 1999.
Instead, the year was marked with yet more dissension over paramilitary
arms caches and no transfer of power until the end of the year.
In February 1999, Assembly members approved new structures,
including a 10-member cabinet with representatives from the four
main political parties including Sinn Fein. Next, the British
and Irish governments signed four new treaties at the beginning
of March, wrapping up all legislative preparation for the transfer
of power from Westminster to Belfast. But the political parties
failed to resolve their differences on arms decommissioning, and
the new power-sharing executive collapsed for a time after First
Minister David Trimble and his colleagues in the UUP boycotted
the first abortive session of the new Northern Ireland Assembly
in July. The British and Irish governments then began a formal
review of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. George Mitchell
returned to Belfast to oversee the review.
Power transfer: In late November, the parties finally
reached agreement sufficient to nominate cabinet ministers to
run the Northern Ireland Assembly. As part of a carefully choreographed
plan that emerged out of Mitchell’s mediation efforts, the
new executive in Northern Ireland assumed power on Dec. 2, 1999.
That same day the IRA agreed to name an intermediary to the international
commission on the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. Disarmament
was expected to begin in February 2000. At the same time, the
Irish government repealed its constitutional claim to the six
counties of Northern Ireland, and signed a new Anglo-Irish treaty
establishing cross-border institutions.
The Assembly: While in session, the Assembly has full
legislative and executive power over matters previously the responsibility
of the Northern Ireland Office. The executive acts as a cabinet
within the province, with three representatives from the Ulster
Unionist Party (charged with the portfolios of enterprise, trade
and investment; environment; and culture, arts and leisure), three
from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (charged with finance
and personnel; employment and learning; and agriculture), two
from the Democratic Unionist Party (regional development and social
development) and two from Sinn Fein (health and education). The
assembly has the power to legislate in some other areas over which
London retains jurisdiction, but only with the approval of the
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and under parliamentary
control. Decision-making is by simple majority, except in the
case of key decisions, such as standing orders and budget allocations,
where cross-community approval by both unionist and nationalist
sides is required using either parallel consent or a weighted
majority method. All legislation must comply with the European
Convention on Human Rights.
Since the executive took office in December 1999, it has been
suspended several times, in each instance because of issues related
to IRA arms. The first suspension came in February 2000, but was
resolved in May when the IRA agreed to allow inspectors to view
its arms dumps. Many unionists argued that arms inspections were
not enough; they wanted nothing short of full disarmament.
In July 2001, Trimble resigned over what he saw as lack of
progress on IRA arms, precipitating the second Assembly suspension.
In mid-October, after the IRA said it would put a number of its
weapons effectively "beyond use," unionist government
ministers agreed to return to their posts and the British began
removing some military watchtowers from the Northern Ireland countryside.
Although a majority of those in the Ulster Unionist Party backed
Trimble’s return, a few dissenters called for the destruction
of all IRA arms.
The present suspension, discussed in more detail in Section
VII below, began on October 14, 2002, and has yet to be resolved.
The immediate cause was a police raid on Sinn Fein offices that,
according to unionists and at least some in the SDLP, uncovered
evidence of an IRA spy operation. Unionists were due to bring
down the government by January 2003, however, given their continued
disenchantment with IRA progress on arms. Elections for the Assembly
are slated to occur in May 2003, a prospect that may concentrate
minds and bring politicians into agreement sufficient to restart
the devolved government by March, just in time to recess for electioneering.
Political violence: The level of violence in Northern
Ireland is certainly less than before the peace accord. But riots
and demonstrations by both republicans and loyalists, particularly
during the summer marching season, have continued. Loyalists who
have become disenchanted with the direction of the peace process
have upped their campaigns of violence, and in 2001 the British
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, John Reid, declared both
the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Loyalist Volunteer
Force (LVF) had broken their ceasefires.
A primary school in north Belfast emerged as the center of
a particularly distressing sectarian dispute in 2001. The Holy
Cross Girls’ Primary School is in the upper Ardoyne neighborhood,
close to heavily Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. The Catholic
student body, most of whom are between four and 11 years old,
walk to school past many Protestant homes. Unionists began demonstrating
against the children’s use of this route in spring 2001,
arguing that republican paramilitary organizations were using
the children as a cover to infiltrate their section of the neighborhood.
When classes resumed in September, the protests turned violent
as demonstrators threw stones, bricks, and even a pipe bomb at
the girls and their parents. The overwhelming public disapproval
of involving children in violence ultimately led them to become
more peaceful, but harassment of the children and their parents
has continued; a pipe bomb was discovered on school grounds at
the start of 2003.
Outlook: While the primary post-agreement roadblock
to a final resolution in Northern Ireland continues to be paramilitary
arms decommissioning, or "putting arms beyond use,"
there are other obstacles to a lasting peace. In addition to arms
disposition, the parties disagree about police reform and government
demilitarization. The new Northern Ireland police service’s
class of recruits, evenly split between the two communities because
of the new 50-50 quota, began work in 2002. The controversy over
reforms remains far from over, though, as security issues touch
taut political nerves on all sides. The British government have
dismantled some of its military outposts across the province,
but republicans still find its continued presence objectionable.
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- ^Table of Contents
III. UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE ECONOMY
- Views on Job Discrimination
- The Unemployment Differential
- Business and Politics
Unemployment in Northern Ireland stood at 6.3 percent at the
end of 2002, about where it was at the beginning of the year.
>From 1992 until 2001, joblessness in the province had been falling.
In the United Kingdom as a whole, unemployment in December 2002
was 5.2 percent, also the same as at the start of the year, but
now at its lowest level in 25 years. Unemployment in the Irish
Republic is still lower than in Northern Ireland, and stood at
just 4.5 percent in January 2003, although job losses there have
been on the rise since 2001.
Northern Ireland has historically had some of the highest unemployment
rates in the United Kingdom, and the rate varies substantially
between district council areas. Fully 14 percent of West Belfast's
population is unemployed. People without work in Northern Ireland
also have been on the dole longer than those in other regions,
although the number of longterm unemployed has dropped by half
in the last decade. Catholics are much more likely to be unemployed,
and to be unemployed for longer periods.
Sectarian unrest is one of the reasons for Northern Ireland’s
economic woes, but the political agreement has created widespread
hopes for a "peace dividend." Nonetheless, some economists
fear that as peace leads to lower British spending on security
forces in Northern Ireland, economic benefits may be canceled
out.
Political violence has disrupted normal patterns of productivity
and discouraged investment from abroad. One economist estimates
that violence cost the province 20,000 to 30,000 jobs in the 1970s.
But very high unemployment rates in the 1980s may be more attributable
to broader difficulties in industries that are (or were) central
to Northern Ireland’s economy, including shipbuilding, textiles,
synthetic fabrics and clothing. The recent fall in unemployment
is no doubt related to a much more optimistic political outlook
for the province. Employment growth also has been fueled by a
rapidly expanding high tech sector. The improved economy of Ireland
continues to produce positive spillover into Northern Ireland.
- ^Top of Section
Views on Job Discrimination
Fifty years of uninterrupted unionist control, with nationalists
always the minority and with little interest from London in internal
Northern Ireland affairs, was politically stultifying. Social
and economic (as well as political) hegemony of the unionists
was consolidated by—and promoted—discrimination against
Catholics in housing, employment and electoral rules. A not-so-hidden
subtext to anti-Catholic discrimination and violence was the desire
to drive enough Catholics out to prevent any threat that Catholics
could become a majority in the province. As a group, Catholics
were suspected of disloyalty to the Northern Ireland government
because so many of them were nationalists who objected to the
partition of Ireland and considered the existing political arrangement
illegitimate. IRA violence played an important role in fanning
unionist fears. Unionists felt that the subversive and sometimes
violent anti-state tendency they perceived in the minority population
justified anti-Catholic discrimination.
There are strong indications that unionist views on discrimination
issues have changed. A poll published in December 1996 by the
Northern Ireland political magazine Fortnight concluded
that in general "most people in Northern Ireland want to
live together rather than apart and that even on those matters
on which there is most disagreement there are some possible compromises."
On fair employment in particular, the poll concluded, "There
is broad cross-communal support for current policies on fair employment
which promote communal balance in all places of work." Some
87 percent of Catholics and 80 percent of Protestants told the
pollsters they would prefer to work in mixed rather than segregated
workplaces.
London has changed electoral rules, preventing gerrymandering
and providing for proportional representation, and by general
consensus housing is now provided equitably. But nationalists
say repercussions of years of discrimination remain, particularly
in employment, and they contend that Catholics still must contend
with serious outright bigotry. Well-publicized Fair Employment
Tribunal cases help to sustain this view. But even-handed treatment
of complainants and substantial awards to both Protestants and
Catholics at the tribunal seem to have helped change the earlier
Protestant view that fair employment was a purely Catholic issue.
In various studies in recent decades, Catholics have been found
to be unemployed at twice the rate of Protestants; the Catholic
male unemployment rate has been two and a half times the rate
for Protestant males. Despite this "unemployment differential,"
most Protestants believe that Catholics and Protestants do
have the same chance, according to the Social Attitudes Survey.
And of the nearly one-third of Protestants who believe opportunities
are not the same, most who answered the question thought it was
Protestants, not Catholics, who now are on the short end
of the stick. In contrast, 59 percent of Catholics believe that
there are unequal opportunities, and nearly all who said this
believed that a Catholic is less likely to get a job.
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The Unemployment Differential
Nobody believes the differential is simply a product of intentional
discrimination by employers, but most of the scholarly analyses
that have been published on the unemployment differential since
1987 have been unable to rule out discrimination as a contributing
factor. Other factors said to account for the differential are
regional differences, with Catholics concentrated in the less
developed western portion of the province; class differences;
differing attitudes toward unemployment and prospects for employment;
different demographics; differences in education, with Protestants
typically having more technical training (schooling is largely
segregated); the almost complete lack of Catholics in plentiful
security jobs; and the reluctance of some Catholics and Protestants
to apply for jobs in locations outside their own areas.
Some experts question whether the unemployment differential
is the best measure of equality or lack thereof. They believe
the differential may overdramatize inequality, and some argue
that a more appropriate indicator is the success rate of Catholic
job applicants.
Whatever the caveats, an unemployment differential has persisted,
even as the unemployment rate has dropped and as Catholics have
become much better represented in the public sector and have found
new opportunities in the burgeoning software industry. For men,
it has been similar to the unemployment differential in the United
States between blacks and whites. Catholic men remain more likely
to be unemployed than Protestant men throughout the province at
all qualifications levels, and are also more likely to be unemployed
for long periods.
There are recent indications that the unemployment differential
has diminished some, but definitive conclusions cannot be made
because this finding is from a sample survey that has a margin
of error. The 1991 census found that 28.4 percent of Catholic
men were unemployed, compared with 12.7 percent of Protestant
men, an unemployment differential of 2.2. But in 2000, according
to Northern Ireland government data released in March 2001, 9
percent of Catholic men were unemployed, compared with 6 percent
of Protestant men, a differential of 1.5. The differential for
women in 2000 was 8 percent of Catholics unemployed compared with
4 percent of Protestants. Overall, Catholics had an unemployment
rate of 9 percent, compared with only 5 percent for Protestants.
Given the margin of error in the sample, it is possible that no
drop in the differential has occurred, or that the drop is more
significant.
Those out of work for long periods were slightly more likely
to be Catholics: 52 percent versus 48 percent Protestant. A definitive
picture of the current unemployment differential will become available
once data from the 2001 census are published in 2003.
Moreover, the unemployment figures may not tell the whole story,
since they only count individuals who are seeking work, and don’t
include those would-be workers who may have become so discouraged
they no longer make job inquiries. Bob Rowthorn, a Cambridge economist,
pointed out in a study in the mid-1990s that Catholic men then
made up more than 40 percent of the economically inactive population
aged 20 to 60—an age group that presumably excludes most
retirees and fulltime students.
For unemployed Catholics, the problem is concentrated among
those with no formal qualifications. To start with, Catholics
are somewhat overrepresented among this group. But, more importantly,
among those with no formal qualifications, Catholics are much
more likely to be unemployed.
It may be difficult to have a large impact on this problem
without massive new investment in Northern Ireland or an extensive
government jobs program, although the promise of many new jobs
from post-ceasefire investment has the potential to make a dent.
Research commissioned for the review of the 1989 fair employment
law cautioned that job increases may have a limited effect on
the unemployment rolls because of the complex relationship between
job creation, migration and economic activity rates.
A major element in the continued unemployment differential
has been Protestant dominance of security forces, a huge but now
diminishing source of employment in Northern Ireland. Security
jobs were not as available to Catholics, not only because large
numbers of Catholics saw the security forces as occupying armies
in their communities, but because even Catholics interested in
security employment were likely to be deterred by social pressure
or by fear of becoming an IRA target. This situation started to
change after the ceasefires, when Catholic applications for police
jobs rose. New Northern Ireland policing laws are attempting to
facilitate that change—while in 1999, Catholics accounted
for only 8.3 percent of the RUC and 8.1 percent of appointees,
new 50/50 recruitment mandates ensure that police jobs from now
on will go to Protestants and Catholics equally. The dramatic
decrease in security-related jobs in the wake of the ceasefires
has hit Protestant men, although in the context of an overall
economy that has been growing.
Equality Commission data indicate that aside from the government
security area, Catholic underemployment can be attributed largely
to private firms with more than 250 workers. Among occupations
with substantial Catholic underrepresentation are metal making
and treating operatives and metal machining, sales occupations,
engineers and technologists, production managers in manufacturing
and other industries and general managers and administrators in
both government and large companies and organizations.
- ^Top of Section
Business and Politics
As the political discussions have lurched through crises, business
leaders and others concerned with the economy have continued to
urge politicians to find a way forward. The Confederation of British
Industry points out that political impasses produce instability
and uncertainty that harm the investment climate, backing up this
view with regular surveys. The Irish government and Northern Ireland
economy ministers have agreed.
The suspension of the Assembly and the executive in 1999 clearly
had a dampening effect on investment and the economy in Northern
Ireland. A study from PriceWaterhouseCoopers conducted just after
the suspension suggested some companies would reduce their investments
in Northern Ireland if the executive were not returned to office.
"What we see here, perhaps for the first time, is a direct
correlation between political performance and private sector investment,"
a PWC spokesman concluded.
One of the factors that continues to cushion Northern Ireland’s
economy is aid from Europe. The European Union has been giving
money to the region for the last several years through its Special
Support Program for Peace and Reconciliation. The EU renewed its
funding package in 1999, despite fears that Northern Ireland would
lose out to new and poorer members of the European Union when
it came to special economic development funds. The European Commission
also has contributed £830 million pounds to Northern Ireland
for structural aid that includes £400 million for peace
and reconciliation projects.
Even with recent unemployment down and European support flowing
into Northern Ireland, income disparities between Catholics and
Protestants remain. Figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics
and Research Agency, released in October 1999, showed that Catholic
families earned about £180 less per month than their Protestant
counterparts. A report released in January 2003 by the Office
of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister concluded that
"the labour market continues to be the primary source of
disparities between the two main communities," with Catholics
still more likely to be out of work and more likely to be poor.
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- ^Table of Contents
IV. FAIR EMPLOYMENT
LAW IN NORTHERN IRELAND
- Fair Employment Act 1976
- Fair Employment Act 1989
- Fair Employment Law Changes in 1998
Two pieces of legislation that passed the British Parliament
in 1998 have altered the landscape for fair employment law in
Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which implements
the Good Friday Agreement, became law in November 1998. The act
amalgamated the Fair Employment Commission into the Equality Commission,
which now also governs discrimination matters relating to gender,
race and physical disability. It also requires governmental bodies
to conduct equality impact assessments on their policies. The
act was followed by the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern
Ireland) Order 1998, passed in December of that year, which consolidates
the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Acts of 1976 and 1989 into
one law and makes other changes, including increased monitoring
duties and an appeals procedure for national security exemptions
from fair employment law.
Fair Employment Act 1976
When the British government assumed direct rule of Northern
Ireland in 1972, it appointed a commission to study the problem
of employment discrimination. On the basis of the commission’s
report, the British Parliament adopted the Fair Employment (Northern
Ireland) Act 1976. The Fair Employment Agency (FEA) was established
to implement its provisions. Many observers, including the government,
eventually came to feel that the 1976 act was ineffective. The
law emphasized voluntary action to end discriminatory practices,
and enforcement action was concerned with stopping intentional
"direct" discrimination. Critics said the FEA had inadequate
authority to require improvements in fair employment practice
and was underfunded. Few employers were even aware of the act
and its provisions.
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Fair Employment Act 1989
A 1987 report from the United Kingdom’s Standing Advisory
Commission on Human Rights recommended adding stronger affirmative
action requirements and setting goals and timetables to reduce
the unemployment differential. The Fair Employment (Northern Ireland)
Act 1989, which went into effect in January 1990, broadened the
emphasis from a focus on direct, intentional discrimination to
indirect discrimination. It hinged on monitoring, the concept
of "fair participation," and taking a more proactive
approach to promoting equal opportunity.
Provisions of the law: The law established a Fair Employment
Commission to supersede the Fair Employment Agency. The FEC’s
powers generally were strengthened relative to those of the FEA,
and the legislation authorized the imposition of such affirmative
action measures as goals and timetables. The government said the
law was a "comprehensive and radical anti-discrimination
measure."
The law requires all public sector employers and all private
sector employers with more than 10 employees to register with
the FEC, now called the Equality Commission, and to submit annual
monitoring returns to the commission that show the religious composition
of their work force by job category and gender. The detailed information
required is similar to the EEO-1 report that U.S. employers with
more than 100 workers must submit to the federal government. Large
employers (with more than 250 workers) also must report on applicants
as well as current employees. All registered employers must review
their employment practices at least once every three years.
Employers who fail to file required reports or to comply with
FEC/Equality Commission directions to improve equality of opportunity
are subject to penalties, and may be ruled ineligible for government
grants or public sector tenders. Practices that lead to indirect
discrimination in employment ("i.e., unjustified requirements
that place members of one community at a disadvantage") also
are outlawed, and employers that find imbalances in their work
forces are supposed to engage in affirmative action. Affirmative
action is defined as "(a) the adoption of practices designed
to secure fair participation by members of the Protestant, or
members of the Roman Catholic, community in Northern Ireland,
and (b) the modification or abandonment of practices that have
or may have the effect of restricting or discouraging such participation."
Affirmative action outreach efforts to the underrepresented group
in particular are protected in recruitment and (under certain
conditions) in training.
Employers are expected to seek to remedy imbalance whether
the underrepresentation is of Protestants or Catholics. There
are about twice as many firms with substantial Catholic underrepresentation
as there are employers with substantial Protestant underrepresentation.
The FEC/Equality Commission has the authority to issue affirmative
action directions to employers, including the use of goals and
timetables for both applications and appointments. A Code of
Practice makes a series of recommendations for "good
practice" by which to judge employers’ records. These
include:
- widespread advertising of job openings to both communities;
- the use of systematic and objective recruitment, hiring and
promotion procedures including application forms, detailed job
descriptions and advertised statements that applications are
welcome from both communities;
- avoidance of standing lists; avoidance of procedures that
identify prospective employees through existing workers, trade
unions "or any other restricted group";
- selection and promotion based on potential as well as experience;
use of panels with at least two people to do interviews; and
- extensive documentation of the hiring process.
The FEC/Equality Commission does not settle disputes between
individuals and employers. Instead, a Fair Employment Tribunal
(FET), a modification of the existing industrial tribunal system,
adjudicates complaints. Besides hearing individual cases, the
tribunal can award damages and order remedial action.
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Fair Employment Law Changes in
1998
The new laws passed in 1998 did not fundamentally alter the
existing structure set out by the 1989 law. The changes made were
the culmination of a government-sponsored employment equality
review, but also reflect input from the Good Friday Agreement.
The most hotly debated changes affect government, instead, and
aim to better ensure government programs afford equality of opportunity
without regard to religion and several other factors.
The road to legislation: SACHR again conducted a formal
review of fair employment law, publishing three volumes of research
in summer 1996 before its final report in June 1997. The government
responded with a March 1998 white paper. Reached a month after
the white paper was issued, the Good Friday peace accord echoed
many of the white paper's main points on equality law, while adding
stricter requirements for government equality promotion.
The Northern Ireland Act 1998: Changes on fair employment
in the Good Friday Agreement became law when the Northern Ireland
Act passed Parliament in November 1998. The Act gives the new
Northern Ireland Assembly the authority to legislate on equality.
But Westminster retains the ability to override laws emanating
from the Assembly if they Britain’s international obligations,
such as those set out in the European Convention on Human Rights
and in other treaties. Because employment equality is not specifically
included in the convention, however, most aspects of fair employment
law are subject to the Assembly, presuming it is sitting. London
retains direct jurisdiction over issues of national security covered
by fair employment law, along with appointments to the Fair Employment
Tribunal, since it is part of the judiciary that it also still
controls.
Fair Employment and Treatment Order 1998: The December
1998 law, approved under expedited legislative procedures, consolidated
the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Acts of 1976 and 1989,
and their amendments, into one law. It forbids discrimination
in the provision of goods and services, imposes more detailed
monitoring requirements on employers, allows companies to limit
recruitment to the unemployed, allows religion-specific training,
provides for compensation for indirect discrimination and permits
injunctions to stop persistent discrimination. The order also
set up an appeals procedure for national security exemptions from
fair employment law. It went into effect in March 1999.
Government bodies in Northern Ireland now must conduct equality
impact assessments for prospective policies. The Equality Commission
has responsibility for enforcing this new statutory duty on all
public authorities in Northern Ireland to promote equality of
opportunity.
New monitoring regulations that implement the act’s technical
changes to the law were published in spring 1999. A unified code
to supersede the old 1989 Fair Employment Act Code of Practice,
which remains in force, eventually is expected to emerge. But
this has yet to happen because there are still differences in
the four laws that impose equality duties (for gender, race, disability
and religion).
The new law requires employers to report more data, which employers
turned in during 2001. All employers have to report on the religious
composition, by the nine Standard Occupational Classifications,
for their work force as a whole, employees working more than 16
hours per week, those working less than 16 hours a week, applicants
and appointees. Employers with more than 250 workers and public
sector bodies must report this information for all promotions
and those who leave their employ, as well.
The Equality Commission began its work in October 1999. Chief
commissioner Joan Harbison had chaired the Commission for Racial
Equality from 1997. As a SACHR member, Harbison also helped lead
the official employment equality review completed in 1997. The
commission operated for an interim period under four separate
directorates that covered fair employment, race, gender, and disability;
it combined the four divisions in 2001.
In January 2002, the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister
announced that instead of introducing to the Assembly a Single
Equality Bill to consolidate existing legislation dealing with
religion, race, gender and disability, it would produce by year’s
end a paper on the subject; it now appears legislation will not
be considered until 2004, assuming the Assembly is back in place.
The Equality Commission has taken a lower public profile than
the Fair Employment Commission, but was castigated in the fall
after announcing it would cut support for discrimination cases
brought to the Fair Employment Tribunal. The commission says its
support for tribunal cases had gone up dramatically and pushed
up costs too much, and now will be about the same level as in
the past. The controversy appears to have arisen because of problems
with amalgamating the commission’s legal functions from the
previously separate bodies that dealt with different aspects of
equality.
Criticisms of the new law: Along the way to final passage
of the new fair employment law, some grassroots groups were disappointed
that the final law did not include two of SACHR's final recommendations,
which is that the government:
- set targets for eliminating the unemployment differential
and
- link government procurement to affirmative action.
Critics were not wholly satisfied with the new government equality
promotion requirements, either. The private sector makes up only
a third of the economy in Northern Ireland, and changes in private
sector employment practices, though important, can go only so
far in delivering equality of opportunity, these critics say.
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- ^Table of Contents
V. THE MACBRIDE
PRINCIPLES
- Background
- Views on MacBride and Fair Employment
The MacBride principles are a set of nine equal opportunity/affirmative
action principles aimed at fighting religious discrimination in
employment in Northern Ireland. They were initiated in 1984 by
the Irish National Caucus and then-New York City Comptroller Harrison
Goldin. Early supporters included church groups affiliated with
the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and the Irish-American
Labor Coalition—which helped win support from the AFL-CIO.
(The text of the principles, as amplified in 1986, appears
at the end of this report. Section VII below contains more details
on MacBride campaign developments in 2002.)
Background
The U.S.-based lobbying and publicity campaign in support of
the MacBride principles has focused attention on employment equity
in Northern Ireland. In addition to introducing numerous shareholder
proposals that urge companies to sign the principles, proponents
have succeeded in getting laws that relate to the MacBride principles
on the books in 17 states (including one law that has now expired),
the District of Columbia and more than 35 localities. Nonbinding
resolutions have been adopted by a number of other state and local
governments.
While companies have refused to adopt the MacBride principles
formally, 79 companies that at one time have had subsidiaries,
affiliates or franchises in Northern Ireland have reached agreements
with activists on implementing the MacBride principles; 56 of
these are U.S. firms with current operations in Northern Ireland.
Canada's Northern Telecom and Bermuda’s Tyco International
are the only non-U.S. companies with current Northern Ireland
operations to have formal agreements on implementation. Tyco reached
its agreements while still incorporated in the United States.
The MacBride campaign has focused mainly on U.S. companies,
but in the mid-1990s, activists in Britain and Australia also
targeted British and other overseas firms.
The MacBride campaign is widely credited with prompting the
British government to strengthen fair employment law in Northern
Ireland in 1989. U.S. supporters of the principles maintained
a lower profile during the debate leading up to the 1998 legislation.
The campaign, once strongly opposed by the British, also has aroused
considerable controversy, with critics saying it is a disincentive
to investment and an unnecessary external pressure. Government
officials in Northern Ireland believe that increasing investment
in Northern Ireland is crucial for expanding opportunities, particularly
for Catholics, and in easing tensions between groups.
Patrons and sponsors: The MacBride principles are named
for Amnesty International co-founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Sean MacBride. The principles were developed and initially promulgated
by the New York City comptroller and by the Washington-based Irish
National Caucus. Since 1984, they have been supported by a wide
array of Irish-American groups as well as by some church groups
and labor unions, notably the AFL-CIO. In addition, the principles
enjoy broad bipartisan support in Congress.
When the principles were launched in 1984, their formal sponsors
were MacBride, who died in 1988; Inez McCormack, a prominent labor
leader; Father Brian Brady, a west Belfast priest who died in
1986; and Dr. John Robb, a surgeon and then a member of the Irish
Senate. McCormack and Robb are Protestants. The principles are
supported in Northern Ireland by a group called Equality, and
by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (well known in the United States)
and other civil rights activists.
In 1986, in response to arguments by U.S. companies and by
the British government that implementing the principles would
cause companies to contravene the 1976 Fair Employment Act, MacBride
issued a set of amplified principles with a short commentary on
each principle elaborating on how it was intended to be used.
MacBride, the son of famous republican parents, had been chief
of staff of the IRA in the early 1930s, a fact that contributed
to opposition to the principles among unionists and the British
government, even though MacBride had long since renounced the
use of violence and broken with the IRA. As the author of the
principles, MacBride attracted allegiance and drew hackles for
more than his IRA involvement 50 years earlier. As a politician,
MacBride was identified, as one academic put it, with "the
republican fringes of constitutional politics." Reaction
to the MacBride issue for some people was influenced by the fact
that the principles were part of an effort begun by the Irish
National Caucus, and because the campaign in substantial measure
was sustained by the caucus and other groups regarded as sympathetic
to Irish republicanism, including Noraid, a North American group
closely identified with the IRA.
Father Sean McManus, president of the INC, has been a central
figure in the MacBride campaign. At one time he supported the
IRA, but he emphasizes that he and the caucus have rejected violence.
In the view espoused by McManus and some other MacBride supporters,
shifting the focus from violence to such political and social
issues as fair employment is a way to use peaceful strategies
to achieve change. Some of their critics doubt this, and believe
the MacBride campaign had the effect—and was intended to
have the effect—of harming the Northern Ireland economy.
Addressing the ‘chill’ factor: Aside from
putting pressure on the British government to strengthen fair
employment laws, the major area of progress that seems attributable
in substantial part to the campaign is in reducing sectarian displays
at factories. In the late 1980s, flags, bunting, marches and songs
were prevalent at many Northern Ireland factories, particularly
during the "marching season" in July when Protestants
celebrate the victory of Protestant King William III over the
Catholic King James II 300 years ago. Pressure exerted in the
context of the MacBride campaign helped lead Short Brothers Ltd.,
an aircraft and missile company that now has more than 5,000 employees,
Gallaher Ltd. (owned by American Brands until 1997, with about
1,000 workers) and other companies to ban such displays. The companies,
with crucial support from certain trade union leaders, faced down
protests and at least one brief strike, as well as personal threats,
and at most large factories sectarian displays have been eliminated
or reduced to minimal levels.
Companies have objected to the second MacBride principle, suggesting
that it implies corporate responsibility to protect workers on
their way to and from work. MacBride proponents generally have
responded by saying the principle as amplified requires
only that companies make good faith efforts to protect employees
at work and to deal with any "chill factor" that may
discourage people from applying for work. Concerns of both sides
have some foundation. In recent years, workers have been killed
traveling to or from work, or on the job, at five companies pressured
by the MacBride campaign. There was a clear drop in the chill
factor after the ceasefires, but many people in Northern Ireland
remain wary of regular travel outside their own areas, particularly
during the summer marching season.
Legality of the principles: One of the main controversies
in the early debate over the MacBride principles was whether their
implementation would violate the law in Northern Ireland by requiring
(then illegal) positive discrimination. This debate largely became
moot with the passage of the 1989 Fair Employment Act and the
1998 reforms.
Even before the 1989 law, controversy over whether the principles
are legal lessened as a result of a 1986 U.S. district court decision
related to a shareholder proposal. In Nycers v. American Brands,
a judge ruled that the New York City Employees’ Retirement
System, which had brought the case, has made "a strong showing
of the likelihood...that upon a full trial it could prove that
all nine of the MacBride principles could be legally implemented
by management in its Northern Ireland facility."
Nonetheless, some business people and others in Northern Ireland
continue to say that the MacBride principles are not entirely
consistent with the law. This point was reiterated in supporting
evidence to Emerson Electric’s challenge of a MacBride shareholder
resolution in September 1998, by the chairman of the Standing
Advisory Commission on Human Rights while acting in his private
capacity as a barrister. The shareholder proposals, and agreements
between shareholders and companies, refer to "lawful"
implementation of the principles.
- ^Top of Section
Views on MacBride and Fair Employment
What follows are summaries of the views of some of the major
actors in the controversy over the principles: governments, the
proponents, churches, and political parties in the Northern Ireland.
The British government: The British government conducted
an energetic campaign against the MacBride principles initially,
but this effort has been reduced noticeably in the last few years.
Prominent Labour party members have praised the work done by the
former New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi and his aide, Patrick
Doherty, to promote fair employment. Official policy has been
that the principles are unnecessary because of the local fair
employment law, and "can create a hassle factor for potential
U.S. investors."
Despite what seems to be a somewhat nuanced view of the principles
by Labour Party leaders of Northern Ireland’s government
and some other government officials, it is clear that the British
Foreign Office sustains a significant degree of antipathy for
them. In a January 1999 letter to IRRC, a British embassy official
in Washington said the new 1998 legislation "establishes
a full and impressive framework for ensuring fair employment in
Northern Ireland." He said, "Those who continue to ride
a MacBride hobbyhorse" are pursuing "the day before
yesterday’s crusade, which is now positively unhelpful to
the cause it purports to espouse."
Previously, the Tory government cited TRW, which said it sold
its Northern Ireland operation in 1988 in part because of the
MacBride campaign. On the whole, though, the government’s
concern did not seem to be that existing employers would be driven
away, but that prospective employers would decline to enter Northern
Ireland. The British emphasized the skepticism (at best) with
which John Hume, the former SDLP leader, viewed the MacBride campaign.
The Irish government: Over the years, Irish governments
have blurred their positions on the MacBride principles and on
laws supporting the principles. Various recent Irish government
administrations have not found the principles objectionable.
The U.S. government and Congress: President George W.
Bush takes much less interest in Northern Ireland than did President
Clinton; however, the Republican party platform does support the
principles, as does the Democratic platform.
Former President Bill Clinton said he supported the MacBride
principles. In expressing support for the Fair Employment Act,
Clinton said, "reliable employment and freedom from discrimination
is a key element in building a stable, civil society in Northern
Ireland." He believed there is "a direct correlation
between unemployment and the incidence of violence. Jobs, particularly
in pockets of high unemployment, will help alleviate the conditions
that have bred violence and despair in the past."
Congressional MacBride supporters managed to include language
in the foreign aid bill that linked support for the principles
to funding for the International Fund for Ireland. The IFI receives
money from the U.S., Europe and Australia and supports economic
development projects in Northern Ireland and the border counties
of the Republic. The Clinton administration initially opposed
tying IFI funding to the MacBride principles, arguing they were
too controversial, but did not make an issue of the inclusion
of the MacBride name in the end. In August 1996, Clinton directed
the U.S. observer to the IFI to take efforts to ensure that fund
recipients carried out the principles.
Recent state action: A recent congressional effort to
overturn a state MacBride law met with fierce resistance and was
ultimately defeated. In January 2002, a Florida state senator
filed a bill to repeal the state’s 1988 MacBride law. The
Washington, D.C.-based Irish National Caucus responded with a
series of press releases calling the bill "anti-Catholic"
and "insulting to Irish Americans." The sponsor withdrew
her bill eight days later. Still, the bill was supported by the
Florida State Board of Administration, which by law must support
MacBride shareholder proposals and report on portfolio company
involvement in Northern Ireland. An article in Pensions and
Investments in late December 2001, took approving note of
the board’s plan to engineer the MacBride repeal. The article
said the board, whose trustees include Gov. Jeb Bush, "considers
the [Northern Ireland] restrictions outdated because staff and
trustees believe companies aren’t discriminating in employment."
The MacBride proponents: Former New York City Comptroller
Hevesi, the chief investment advisor to and custodian of the city’s
pension funds, said that the MacBride campaign has been "very
successful," leading to increased employment opportunities
for Catholics and spurring the British government to strengthen
fair employment law in Northern Ireland. Hevesi and his two predecessors,
Harrison Goldin and Elizabeth Holtzman, were leaders of the MacBride
campaign since its inception. The new comptroller, William C.
Thompson, Jr., took office on Jan. 1, 2002, and has continued
the campaign. Patrick Doherty in Thompson’s office has worked
on the campaign, which remains a priority for Thompson, since
its inception. Doherty told IRRC that the MacBride principles
represent proposals whose adoption will help to redress inequalities
in employment in Northern Ireland. They have caused U.S. multinationals
to seriously examine the performance of their Irish subsidiaries
in providing equality of opportunity and have also effectively
pressured the British government to move more vigorously to combat
religious discrimination.
New York State comptrollers have continued their support for
the campaign since its start, as well. With the election of Alan
Hevesi to state comptroller in 2002, continued state support for
the principles is assured.
The religious shareholder groups that are sponsoring MacBride-related
resolutions believe that one of the main strengths of the principles
is that they offer a positive, nonviolent alternative to the current
state of affairs. Sister Regina Murphy, the coordinator of the
religious shareholders’ campaign for the principles until
late in 2002, noted that church groups became involved in supporting
the MacBride principles as a result of their "basic commitment
to the idea of justice in the world and a fair share for everyone."
Sister Regina said the argument that the principles are creating
a disincentive to investment is "specious." McManus
and Doherty have stressed that the MacBride effort is not a disinvestment
campaign. Doherty says there is a paucity of evidence that MacBride
has had any negative effect on investment.
MacBride sponsor Inez McCormack notes that fair employment
was a principal goal of the civil rights movement in Northern
Ireland. She says the issue had not been effectively addressed
within the Northern Ireland/British context, and that the only
effective strategy for change on this issue has been resort to
"external" pressure, principally through the MacBride
campaign. MacBride supporters say continued pressure from America
is necessary to support tough enforcement of the fair employment
law, and to ensure equality remains a priority.
Similarly, Oliver Kearney of Equality, a Northern Ireland group,
said that only the MacBride campaign and related efforts can prevent
yet another generation of Catholic youth in Northern Ireland from
suffering from extremely high levels of unemployment and economic
hardship.
Church leaders: The three main Northern Ireland Protestant
churches and the Roman Catholic church in Ireland issued an unusual
joint appeal in January 1994 for "more investment and strong
fair employment measures in Northern Ireland." They were
joined in the call by counterparts in the United States—representatives
of the Presbyterian Church, USA; the U.S. Catholic Conference;
the United Methodist Church; and the Episcopal Church, USA. Leaders
of the churches argued that investment and fair employment are
connected and that more jobs will help increase the share of Catholics
in employment. Cardinal Cahal Daly, the retired leader of the
Catholic Church in Ireland, emphasized that church leaders were
"neither opposing or supporting" the MacBride principles.
Daly and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland previously had been
perceived to be hostile to the MacBride campaign.
- ^Top of Section
Political parties in Northern Ireland:
Unionist parties—Although leaders of the Ulster
Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party have denounced
the MacBride principles, unionist views on fair employment appear
to have softened significantly. Unionist leaders have said employment
discrimination in Northern Ireland is exaggerated and that discrimination
occurs against both Protestants and Catholics. They also have
argued that the issue of intimidating flags and emblems in the
workplace is overblown. Unionists (and some academics) believe
that the fair employment differential between Protestant and Catholic
males, cited often by the MacBride campaign, is misleading at
best. To the extent there is a differential, argue some of these
leaders, it is primarily for reasons not related to discrimination.
UUP leaders have said the MacBride principles discourage investment,
could encourage reverse discrimination at the point of hire, and
are unnecessary given the current fair employment law.
SDLP—Former Social Democratic and Labour Party
leader John Hume was opposed to the MacBride campaign. He urged
supporters of the principles to end the campaign and push instead
for investment in areas of high unemployment, saying, "You
don’t solve the problem of the unemployed with principles,
you solve it with jobs." In 1990, Hume suggested the MacBride
principles had become irrelevant, since the fair employment law
covers "all of the MacBride principles, except the one which
calls for employers to guarantee the safety of workers going to
and from work," a guarantee that Hume said no employer could
provide.
Despite Hume’s opposition, it is clear that there are
a variety of views within the party—not all of them hostile—on
the MacBride principles and the efficacy of American involvement
in the fair employment issue. The new party leader, Mark Durkan,
has made no official statements on the MacBride principles.
Sinn Fein—Sinn Fein supports the MacBride principles.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has described the principles as "an
effective first step towards equality of opportunity" and
"the only realistic challenge to the institutionalized inequality
of the six-county state." Adams has argued that the Fair
Employment Act and the FEA were cosmetic gestures that were not
intended to be effective. Adams and other Sinn Fein officials
have reiterated their support for the principles recently, linking
economic equality to political "parity of esteem," which
they see as crucial to making the peace accord
last. Sinn Fein believes that sustained attention from the international
community—such as the MacBride campaign—remains a key
factor in the push for equality in Northern Ireland.
- ^Top of Section
- ^Table of Contents
VI. U.S. COMPANIES
IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Employment at the subsidiaries and affiliates of U.S. companies
in Northern Ireland dropped for the first time in years in 2002,
falling 9.5 percent to 19,903 workers, a drop of 2,025 workers
between the end of 2001 and the end of 2002. Employment had risen
by about 7 percent in 2001 and 15 percent in 2000, largely because
of acquisitions, which were largely absent in 2002. There are
still about twice as many jobs at U.S. firms as in 1994, when
paramilitary groups declared their first ceasefires; at that time,
there were only 10,200 employees at firms with U.S. ties. Employment
growth has appeared to take little notice of the uncertainties
in the Northern Ireland political process, but certainly has been
negatively affected by the recent worldwide economic downturn.
The deterioration in Northern Ireland’s peace process in
the last year cannot have helped prospects for new investment.
(Detailed lists of firms in Northern Ireland, updated quarterly
for U.S. firms and semiannually for non-U.S. companies, are available
from IRRC’s Northern Ireland Service.)
In 2002, there were no substantial acquisitions by U.S. firms
to outweigh the drop in jobs that occurred from layoffs, plant
closures and sell-offs. Twenty-two U.S. companies that IRRC had
identified as having Northern Ireland operations last year no
longer have ties to the province. There were just six brand new
companies to report at year-end, down from 30 in 2001, underscoring
the point that 2002 was a year for U.S. firms to cut rather than
establish ties to Northern Ireland. Contractions in 2002 at two
big privately held U.S. employers—a chicken processor and
an industrial plant—cut more than 750 jobs between them and
no sector was immune from contraction.
There are at present 65 publicly held U.S. companies with subsidiaries
(with parent company ownership of more than 50 percent) or affiliates
(ownership of 10 to 50 percent) employing more than 10 workers
in Northern Ireland.
| Largest U.S. Employers in Northern
Ireland |
| Rank |
Company |
Employees |
| 1 |
OSI Industries (pvt) |
2,510 |
| 2 |
Caterpillar |
2,311 |
| 3 |
Seagate Technology (pvt) |
1,809 |
| 4 |
AVX |
1,014 |
| 5 |
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (pvt) |
693 |
| 6 |
DuPont |
660 |
| 7 |
General Electric 1 |
649 |
| 8 |
Nacco Industries |
644 |
| 9 |
Solectron |
584 |
| 10 |
Sanmina-SCI |
510 |
| 1 One
minority-owned affiliate and four wholly owned subsidiaries,
three that are very small. |
IRRC survey findings: IRRC's annual survey found in
2002 that while most U.S. companies appear to reflect the local
population, Catholics or Protestants are not fairly represented
at about one-quarter of U.S. employers (down from one-third in
2001); at least three-quarters are taking affirmative action.
Religious composition: Catholic representation in 2002
grew to 43.4 percent, up from 42.1 percent in 2001. There are
now 10,273 Protestants and 7,873 Catholics at U.S.-associated
firms (see table). This constitutes a net drop since last year
of 473 jobs for Catholics and 1,189 jobs for Protestants, with
Protestants losing jobs at twice the rate as Catholics. Increases
in 2001 were roughly proportionate to each group's representation
in 2000.
Catholic representation at all U.S. companies has risen after
a drop in the mid-1990s. Employment shifts at existing U.S. Northern
Ireland employers have produced Protestants job losses in numbers
disproportionate to their former overall representation, while
Catholics have gained newly created jobs in proportions greater
than their former overall representation. In the high tech sector,
where Catholics are well represented, major job additions in the
last three years seem to have outweighed subtractions, although
the full impact of high tech sector retrenchment has yet to show
up completely in data reported to IRRC by U.S. companies in Northern
Ireland.
Taken together, U.S. companies appear to reflect the working
age population breakdown of Northern Ireland. Overall census figures
released in late December 2002 show that the entire population
of Northern Ireland in 2001 was 44 percent Catholic, lower than
the expected 46 percent. The Equality Commission estimates, based
on government surveys, that Catholics now make up 43 percent of
the smaller group of economically active workers; this figure
will be tested against the actual census figures when they are
released in mid-2003. Catholics accounted for 39.3 percent of
fulltime workers at private sector firms with more than 25 employees
whose religion was identified in Equality Commission monitoring
for 2001, the latest available data, up from 34.6 percent in 1990.
Firms with underrepresentation: Despite the overall
balance at U.S. companies, at about one-quarter of the U.S. firms
with more than 10 workers, Catholics or Protestants do not appear
to achieve fair participation in the work force, even though many
of these firms have developed affirmative action plans. Catholics
appear to be underrepresented at 12 companies, and Protestants
at nine.
Since 1991, the religious composition of the economically active
population has become more heavily Catholic, reflecting overall
demographic change. Estimates for ideal work force composition
based on the 1991 census—which IRRC uses to assess underrepresentation—therefore
are somewhat unreliable, making determinations of the need for
affirmative action at some companies problematic in some cases.
Given the demographic shifts, IRRC has been conservative in conclusions
about fair participation. In general, however, one can assume
that the Catholic proportion of a company’s catchment area
has grown, undermining a few conclusions about Protestant underrepresentation.
The new detailed census data will make next year’s underrepresentation
assessments more definitive.
Most of the U.S. companies appear to follow policies and practices
generally consistent with the MacBride principles. Neither group
is underrepresented at most companies, so there is little pressure
for those companies to take affirmative action outreach steps.
|
Employees at U.S. Firms
|
| |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
| Protestant |
10,910 |
[57.6%] |
11,462 |
[57.9%] |
10,273 |
[56.6%] |
| Catholic |
8,024 |
[42.4%] |
8,346 |
[42.1%] |
7,873 |
[43.4%] |
| Other |
776 |
|
932 |
|
861 |
|
| No data* |
