I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 470
To provide for adherence with the MacBride Principles by United States
persons doing business in Northern Ireland.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 11, 1995
Mr. GILMAN (for himself and Mr. MANTON) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on International Relations and, in
addition, to the Committees on Ways and Means and Rules, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To provide for adherence with the MacBride Principles by
United States persons doing business in Northern Ireland.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Northern Ireland Fair
Employment Practices Act of 1995’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Currently, overall unemployment in North-
ern Ireland is approximately 13 percent, as com-
pared to 9 percent in the rest of the United King-
dom.
(2) Unemployment in the minority community
in Northern Ireland is 22.8 percent, and in some
portions of the minority community unemployment
has historically exceeded 70 percent.
(3) The British Government Fair Employment
Commission (F.E.C.), formerly the Fair Employ-
ment Agency (F.E.A.), has consistently reported
that a member of the minority community is two
times more likely to be unemployed than a member
of the majority community.
(4) The Investor Responsibility Research Cen-
ter (IRRC), Washington, District of Columbia, lists
80 publicly held United States companies doing
business in Northern Ireland, which employ approxi-
mately 11,000 individuals.
(5) The religious minority population of North-
ern Ireland is subject to discriminatory hiring prac-
tices by some United States businesses which have
resulted in a disproportionate number of minority
individuals holding menial and low-paying jobs.
(6) The MacBride Principles are a nine point
set of guidelines for fair employment in Northern
Ireland which establishes a corporate code of con-
duct to promote equal access to regional employment
but does not require disinvestment, quotas, or re-
verse discrimination.
SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON IMPORTS.
An article from Northern Ireland may not be entered,
or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, in the cus-
toms territory of the United States unless there is pre-
sented at the time of entry to the customs officer con-
cerned documentation indicating that the enterprise which
manufactured or assembled such article was in compliance
at the time of manufacture with the principles described
in section 5.
SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE WITH FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRIN-
CIPLES.
(a) COMPLIANCE.—Any United States person who—
(1) has a branch or office in Northern Ireland,
or
(2) controls a corporation, partnership, or other
enterprise in Northern Ireland,
in which more than twenty people are employed shall take
the necessary steps to ensure that, in operating such
branch, office, corporation, partnership, or enterprise,
those principles relating to employment practices set forth
in section 5 are implemented and this Act is complied
with.
(b) REPORT.—Each United States person referred to
in subsection (a) shall submit to the Secretary—
(1) a detailed and fully documented annual re-
port, signed under oath, on showing compliance with
the provisions of this Act; and
(2) such other information as the Secretary de-
termines is necessary.
SEC. 5. MACBRIDE PRINCIPLES.
The principles referred to in section 4 are the
MacBride Principles, which are as follows:
(1) INCREASING THE REPRESENTATION OF IN-
DIVIDUALS
FROM
UNDERREPRESENTED
RELIGIOUS
GROUPS IN THE WORK FORCE INCLUDING MANAGE-
RIAL, SUPERVISORY, ADMINISTRATIVE, CLERICAL,
AND TECHNICAL JOBS.—A workforce that is severely
unbalanced may indicate prima facie that full equal-
ity of opportunity is not being afforded all segments
of the community in Northern Ireland. Each signa-
tory to the MacBride Principles must make every
reasonable lawful effort to increase the representa-
tion of underrepresented religious groups at all levels
of its operations in Northern Ireland.
(2) ADEQUATE
SECURITY
FOR
THE
PROTEC-
TION
OF
MINORITY
EMPLOYEES
BOTH
AT
THE
WORKPLACE AND WHILE TRAVELLING TO AND FROM
WORK.—While total security can be guaranteed no-
where today in Northern Ireland, each signatory to
the MacBride Principles must make reasonable good
faith efforts to protect workers against intimidation
and physical abuse at the workplace. Signatories
must also make reasonable good faith efforts to en-
sure that applicants are not deterred from seeking
employment because of fear for their personal safety
at the workplace or while travelling to and from
work.
(3) THE BANNING OF PROVOCATIVE RELIGIOUS
OR POLITICAL EMBLEMS FROM THE WORKPLACE.—
Each signatory to the MacBride Principles must
make reasonable good faith efforts to prevent the
display of provocative sectarian emblems at their
plants in Northern Ireland.
(4) ALL
JOB
OPENINGS
SHOULD
BE
ADVER-
TISED PUBLICLY AND SPECIAL RECRUITMENT EF-
FORTS
MADE
TO
ATTRACT
APPLICANTS
FROM
UNDERREPRESENTED RELIGIOUS GROUPS.—Signato-
ries to the MacBride Principles must exert special
efforts to attract employment applications from the
sectarian 
community 
that 
is 
substantially
underrepresented in the workforce. This should not
be construed to imply a diminution of opportunity
for other applicants.
(5) LAYOFF, RECALL, AND TERMINATION PRO-
CEDURES SHOULD NOT IN PRACTICE FAVOR A PAR-
TICULAR RELIGIOUS GROUP.—Each signatory to the
MacBride Principles must make reasonable good
faith efforts to ensure that layoff, recall, and termi-
nation procedures do not penalize a particular reli-
gious group disproportionately. Layoff and termi-
nation practices that involve seniority solely can re-
sult in discrimination against a particular religious
group if the bulk of employees with greatest senior-
ity are disproportionately from another religious
group.
(6) THE ABOLITION OF JOB RESERVATIONS, AP-
PRENTICESHIP
RESTRICTIONS, AND
DIFFERENTIAL
EMPLOYMENT
CRITERIA
WHICH
DISCRIMINATE
ON
THE
BASIS
OF
RELIGION.—Signatories to the
MacBride Principles must make reasonable good
faith efforts to abolish all differential employment
criteria whose effect is discrimination on the basis of
religion. For example, job reservations, and appren-
ticeship regulations that favor relatives of current or
former employees can, in practice, promote religious
discrimination if the company’s workforce has his-
torically been disproportionately drawn from another
religious group.
(7) THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF
TRAINING
PRO-
GRAMS
THAT
WILL
PREPARE
SUBSTANTIAL
NUM-
BERS
OF
CURRENT
MINORITY
EMPLOYEES
FOR
SKILLED JOBS, INCLUDING THE EXPANSION OF EX-
ISTING PROGRAMS AND THE CREATION OF NEW PRO-
GRAMS
TO
TRAIN, UPGRADE, AND
IMPROVE
THE
SKILLS OF MINORITY EMPLOYEES.—This does not
imply that such programs should not be open to all
members of the workforce equally.
(8) THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PROCEDURES TO
ASSESS, IDENTIFY, AND ACTIVELY RECRUIT MINOR-
ITY
EMPLOYEES
WITH
POTENTIAL
FOR
FURTHER
ADVANCEMENT.—This section does not imply that
such procedures should not apply to all employees
equally.
(9) THE APPOINTMENT OF A SENIOR MANAGE-
MENT STAFF MEMBER TO OVERSEE THE COMPANY’S
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EFFORTS AND THE SETTING
UP OF TIMETABLES TO CARRY OUT AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION PRINCIPLES.—In addition to the above, each
signatory to the MacBride Principles is required to
report annually to an independent monitoring agen-
cy on its progress in the implementation of these
Principles.
SEC. 6. WAIVER OF PROVISIONS.
(a) WAIVER OF PROVISIONS.—In any case in which
the President determines that compliance by a United
States person with the provisions of this Act would harm
the national security of the United States, the President
may waive those provisions with respect to that United
States person. The President shall publish in the Federal
Register each waiver granted under this section and shall
submit to the Congress a justification for granting each
such waiver. Any such waiver shall become effective at the
end of ninety days after the date on which the justification
is submitted to the Congress unless the Congress, within
that ninety-day period, adopts a joint resolution dis-
approving the waiver. In the computation of such ninety-
day period, there shall be excluded the days on which ei-
ther House of Congress is not in session because of an
adjournment of more than three days to a day certain or
because of an adjournment of the Congress sine die.
(b) CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTIONS.—
(1) Any resolution described in subsection (a)
shall be considered in the Senate in accordance with
the provisions of section 601(b) of the International
Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of
1976.
(2) For the purpose of expediting the consider-
ation and adoption of a resolution under subsection
(a) in the House of Representatives, a motion to
proceed to the consideration of such resolution after
it has been reported by the appropriate committee
shall be treated as highly privileged in the House of
Representatives.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS AND PRESUMPTIONS.
(a) DEFINITIONS.—For the purpose of this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘United States person’’ means any
United States resident or national and any domestic
concern (including any permanent domestic estab-
lishment of any foreign concern);
(2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of Commerce; and
(3) the term ‘‘Northern Ireland’’ includes the
counties of Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Down,
Tyrone, and Fermanagh.
(b) PRESUMPTION.—A United States person shall be
presumed to control a corporation, partnership, or other
enterprise in Northern Ireland if—
(1) the United States person beneficially owns
or controls (whether directly or indirectly) more than
50 percent of the outstanding voting securities of
the corporation, partnership, or enterprise;
(2) the United States person beneficially owns
or controls (whether directly or indirectly) 25 per-
cent or more of the voting securities of the corpora-
tion, partnership, or enterprise, if no other person
owns or controls (whether directly or indirectly) an
equal or larger percentage;
(3) the corporation, partnership, or enterprise
is operated by the United States person pursuant to
the provisions of an exclusive management contract;
(4) a majority of the members of the board of
directors of the corporation, partnership, or enter-
prise are also members of the comparable governing
body of the United States person;
(5) the United States person has authority to
appoint the majority of the members of the board of
directors of the corporation, partnership, or enter-
prise; or
(6) the United States person has authority to
appoint the chief operating officer of the corpora-
tion, partnership, or enterprise.
SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act.
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