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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 424

To provide for adherence with the MacBride Principles by United States

persons doing business in Northern Ireland.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 15 (legislative day, JANUARY 30), 1995

Mr. D’AMATO introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To provide for adherence with the MacBride Principles by

United States persons doing business in Northern Ireland.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Northern Ireland Fair

5 Employment Practices Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:

8 (1) Overall unemployment in Northern Ireland

9 exceeds 14 percent.
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1 (2) Unemployment in some neighborhoods of

2 Northern Ireland comprised of religious minorities

3 has exceeded 70 percent.

4 (3) The British Government Fair Employment

5 Commission (F.E.C.), formerly the Fair Employ6 ment Agency (F.E.A.), has consistently reported

7 that a member of the minority community is two

8 and one-half times more likely to be unemployed

9 than a member of the majority community.

10 (4) The Industrial Development Organization

11 for Northern Ireland lists twenty-five firms in

12 Northern Ireland which are controlled by United

13 States persons.

14 (5) The Investor Responsibility Research Cen15 ter (IRRC), Washington, District of Columbia, lists

16 forty-nine publicly held and nine privately held Unit17 ed States companies doing business in Northern Ire18 land.

19 (6) The religious minority population of North20 ern Ireland is frequently subject to discriminatory

21 hiring practices by United States businesses which

22 have resulted in a disproportionate number of mi23 nority individuals holding menial and low-paying

24 jobs.
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1 (7) The MacBride Principles are a nine point

2 set of guidelines for fair employment in Northern

3 Ireland which establishes a corporate code of con4 duct to promote equal access to regional employment

5 but does not require disinvestment, quotas, or re6 verse discrimination.

7 SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON IMPORTS.

8 An article from Northern Ireland may not be entered,

9 or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, in the cus10 toms territory of the United States unless there is pre11 sented at the time of entry to the customs officer con12 cerned documentation indicating that the enterprise which

13 manufactured or assembled such article was in compliance

14 at the time of manufacture with the principles described

15 in section 5.

16 SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE WITH FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRIN17 CIPLES.

18 (a) COMPLIANCE.—Any United States person who—

19 (1) has a branch or office in Northern Ireland,

20 or

21 (2) controls a corporation, partnership, or other

22 enterprise in Northern Ireland,

23 in which more than twenty people are employed shall take

24 the necessasry steps to insure that, in operating such

25 branch, office, corporation, partnership, or enterprise,
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1 those principles relating to employment practices set forth

2 in section 5 are implemented and this Act is complied

3 with.

4 (b) REPORT.—Each United States person referred to

5 in subsection (a) shall submit to the Secretary—

6 (1) a detailed and fully documented annual re7 port, signed under oath, on showing compliance with

8 the provisions of this Act; and

9 (2) such other information as the Secretary de10 termines is necessary.

11 SEC. 5. MACBRIDE PRINCIPLES.

12 The principles referred to in section 4, which are

13 based on the MacBride Principles, are as follows:

14 (1) Eliminating religious discrimination in man15 agerial, supervisory, administrative, clerical, and

16 technical jobs and significantly increasing the rep17 resentation in such jobs of individuals from

18 underrepresented religious groups.

19 (2) Providing adequate security for the protec20 tion of minority employees at the workplace.

21 (3) Banning provocative sectarian and political

22 emblems from the workplace.

23 (4) Advertising publicly all job openings and

24 undertaking special recruitment efforts to attract

25 applicants from underrepresented religious groups.
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1 (5) Establishing layoff, recall, and termination

2 procedures which do not favor particular religious

3 groupings.

4 (6) Providing equal employment for all employ5 ees, including implementing equal and nondiscrim6 inatory terms and conditions of employment for all

7 employees, and abolishing job reservations, appren8 ticeship restrictions, and differential employment cri9 teria, which discriminate on the basis of religion or

10 ethnic origin.

11 (7) Developing training programs that will pre12 pare substantial numbers of minority employees for

13 managerial, supervisory, administrative, clerical, and

14 technical jobs, including—

15 (A) expanding existing programs and form16 ing new programs to train, upgrade, and im17 prove the skills of all categories of minority em18 ployees;

19 (B) creating on-the-job training programs

20 and facilities to assist minority employees to ad21 vance to higher paying jobs requiring greater

22 skills; and

23 (C) establishing and expanding programs

24 to enable minority employees to further their
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1 education and skills at recognized education fa2 cilities.

3 (8) Establishing procedures to assess, identify,

4 and actively recruit minority individuals with poten5 tial for further advancement, and identifying those

6 minority individuals who have high management po7 tential and enrolling them in accelerated manage8 ment programs.

9 (9) Appointing a senior management staff

10 member to oversee the United States person’s com11 pliance with the principles described in this section.

12 SEC. 6. WAIVER OF PROVISIONS.

13 (a) WAIVER OF PROVISIONS.—In any case in which

14 the President determines that compliance by a United

15 States person with the provisions of this Act would harm

16 the national security of the United States, the President

17 may waive those provisions with respect to that United

18 States person. The President shall publish in the Federal

19 register each waiver granted under this section and shall

20 submit to the Congress a justification for granting each

21 such waiver. Any such waiver shall become effective at the

22 end of ninety days after the date on which the justification

23 is submitted to the Congress unless the Congress, within

24 that ninety-day period, adopts a joint resolution dis25 approving the waiver. In the computation of such ninety-
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1 day period, there shall be excluded the days on which ei2 ther House of Congress is not in session because of an

3 adjournment of more than three days to a day certain or

4 because of an adjournment of the Congress sine die.

5 (b) CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTIONS.—

6 (1) Any resolution described in subsection (a)

7 shall be considered in the Senate in accordance with

8 the provisions of section 601(b) of the International

9 Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of

10 1976.

11 (2) For the purpose of expediting the consider12 ation and adoption of a resolution under subsection

13 (a) in the House of Representatives, a motion to

14 proceed to the consideration of such resolution after

15 it has been reported by the appropriate committee

16 shall be treated as highly privileged in the House of

17 Representatives.

18 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS AND PRESUMPTIONS.

19 (a) DEFINITIONS.—For the purpose of this Act—

20 (1) the term ‘‘United States person’’ means any

21 United States resident or national and any domestic

22 concern (including any permanent domestic estab23 lishment of any foreign concern);

24 (2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

25 of Commerce; and
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1 (3) the term ‘‘Northern Ireland’’ includes the

2 counties of Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Down,

3 Tyrone, and Fermanagh.

4 (b) PRESUMPTION.—A United States person shall be

5 presumed to control a corporation, partnership, or other

6 enterprise in Northern Ireland if—

7 (1) the United States person beneficially owns

8 or controls (whether directly or indirectly) more than

9 50 percent of the outstanding voting securities of

10 the corporation, partnership, or enterprise;

11 (2) the United States person beneficially owns

12 or controls (whether directly or indirectly) 25 per13 cent or more of the voting securities of the corpora14 tion, partnership, or enterprise, if no other person

15 owns or controls (whether directly or indirectly) an

16 equal or larger percentage;

17 (3) the corporation, partnership, or enterprise

18 is operated by the United States person pursuant to

19 the provisions of an exclusive management contract;

20 (4) a majority of the members of the board of

21 directors of the corporation, partnership, or enter22 prise are also members of the comparable governing

23 body of the United States person;

24 (5) the United States person has authority to

25 appoint the majority of the members of the board of
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1 directors of the corporation, partnership, or enter2 prise; or

3 (6) the United States person has authority to

4 appoint the chief operating officer of the corpora5 tion, partnership, or enterprise.

6 SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.

7 This Act shall take effect six months after the date

8 of enactment of this Act.

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