Employment In Northern Ireland Research Articles

Employment in Northern Ireland's Civil Service: Social Barriers and Hyperbole Mean Disabled Need Not Apply

The representation of people with disabilities in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) is approximately 44% less than that seen in the civil services of the United States (US) and Great Britain (GB; i.e., the United Kingdom sans Northern Ireland). Various proactive approaches to employing people with disabilities are cited for the success of the US and GB's efforts to increase the representation of disabled people in their civil services. This is important because governments as employers can be the catalyst for large-scale social change. The US and GB governments have demonstrated an intention to be this catalyst. They have done this by (a) establishing goals for the hiring of disabled people; (b) naming executives responsible for reaching these hiring goals; (c) utilising special hiring authorities; (d) executing guaranteed interview schemes; and (e) applying regulations and laws designed to employ and protect people with disabilities. These activities could be adopted in Northern Ireland (NI) to address the current inequalities in the NICS. However, the question remains whether a government that believes it has achieved disability equality in its civil service, despite comparators that say otherwise, can or will make such a concerted effort. An analysis of over 60 US, GB, and NI government and assembly documents, reports, and laws are examined and compared through the lens of critical disability theory (CDT) to identify the disconnect between the representations and the reality of figures presented about the inclusion of those with disabilities in the NICS.

Comparing Equity Policies in Canada and Northern Ireland: Policy Learning in Two Directions?

Employment equity has existed in Canada for 20 years and fair employment in Northern Ireland, in its strengthened form, almost that long. A comparison of the policy frameworks begins with Northern Ireland’s adoption of Canada’s legislation as its model. Canada’s policy covers a limited proportion of its workforce and addresses disadvantage affecting women, racialized minorities, Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities, while Northern Ireland’s policy covers most employees and targets inequality between Catholics and Protestants. Implementation and enforcement of Canada’s and Northern Ireland’s policies differ. In Northern Ireland substantial progress has been made toward employment equality between Catholics and Protestants, while in Canada the four target groups continue to face significant disadvantage. Policy learning was initially from west to east, but it is timely now to consider the case for policy learning from east to west.

Comparing Equity Policies in Canada and Northern Ireland: Policy Learning in Two Directions?

Employment equity has existed in Canada for 20 years and fair employment in Northern Ireland, in its strengthened form, almost that long. A comparison of the policy frameworks begins with Northern Ireland’s adoption of Canada’s legislation as its model. Canada’s policy covers a limited proportion of its workforce and addresses disadvantage affecting women, racialized minorities, Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities, while Northern Ireland’s policy covers most employees and targets inequality between Catholics and Protestants. Implementation and enforcement of Canada’s and Northern Ireland’s policies differ. In Northern Ireland substantial progress has been made toward employment equality between Catholics and Protestants, while in Canada the four target groups continue to face significant disadvantage. Policy learning was initially from west to east, but it is timely now to consider the case for policy learning from east to west.

Skills and Training in the Hotel Sector: The Case of Front Office Employment in Northern Ireland

Notwithstanding the globalisation of services and the migration of some service providers (call centres, financial processing) to regions of low cost labour coupled with high levels of education attainment, there are arguments that the skills, which employees bring to the workplace in executing common tasks, are context and culture specific. This paper is concerned with the skills set and training background of one set of service workers, those in hotel front office, located within Northern Ireland. This paper reports the findings of a survey of front office workers working in 4- and 5-star hotels in Northern Ireland. This survey identifies the skills and training profile of this group of employees and measures attitudes to key skills requirements within front office work.

Children’s Views on Children’s Right to Work

The purpose of this article is to examine children’s attitudes regarding the right to work. The article is based on comments made by 245 15-year-old children on child employment and is supported by focus group interviews with 56 boys and 38 girls and tape-recorded interviews with 15 working pupils. One of most dominant themes to emerge from the data is children’s perception that they have a right to work. The article examines the legislation regarding child employment in Northern Ireland and the role of the state in determining the legislation. The author suggests that within this legislation, children are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection. Traditionally the protection of children in the workforce has been achieved by limiting the hours they can work and the occupations they can enter. Yet when children’s own views are taken into account, they move beyond the limits of protecting them through exclusion to suggesting frameworks whereby their protection may be achieved by empowering them within the labour market.

Supported employment in Northern Ireland: a gateway towards social inclusion for people with learning disabilities

Services in Northern Ireland for adults with learning disabilities do not place enough emphasis on supported employment as an option of intervention to meet individual needs. There is strong evidence to suggest that employment often acts as a gateway toward increased self-esteem, ascription to adult status, social inclusion and heightened dignity for adults with learning disabilities. This paper explores the 'need' to implement strategies of support with regard to employment and an historical overview of supported employment as a model of intervention. How Triangle Women's Housing Association Ltd in Northern Ireland has managed and developed this challenge by a user-led initiative in the field of service provision is briefly outlined.

Towards Fair Employment in Northern Ireland?

Claims of labour market discrimination against Catholics run to the heart of the Northern Ireland conflict. This paper assesses British Government led moves to promote fair employment in the region. It argues that initial policies to promote labour market balance were weak and ineffectual but that since 1989 a meaningful antidiscrimination institutional regime has been put in place. However, underlying economic and social conditions are not favourable to a big institutional push toward fair employment. Thus the quest to end Catholic disadvantage in the labour market is caught between a positive institutional regime and negative ground level circumstances. The paper concludes that the unpredictable outcome of this tension will be better managed in conditions of peace.

The Employment Equality Review And Fair Employment in Northern Ireland

This article examines the process of the Employment Equality Review of the Northern Ireland Fair Employment legislation currently being undertaken by the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights. The article suggests key issues to be undertaken by the review both in terms of its processes and also in terms of the legislation's weaknesses. Specifically the article addresses affirmative action, contract compliance and several of the legislation's explicit and implicit exemptions. Finally the article considers the impact and limitations of two government policy initiatives which should address the issue of religious and political inequalities — the Policy Appraisal and Fair Treatment Guidelines and the Targeting Social Need spending priority. Throughout the article some suggestions for reform are made.

Religion, Equity and Education in Northern Ireland

AbstractFor some years concern has been expressed about the lower qualifications of leavers from Catholic schools in Northern Ireland in comparison with leavers from Protestant schools. The paper outlines research carried out for the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights on possible contributory factors to this attainment gap. The research highlighted the effects of different funding arrangements for Catholic schools and a shortage of grammar school places in the Catholic sector, and recommended proactive measures by government to deal with these issues. The recommendations were based on equity principles and were argued as being consistent with declared government policy on fair employment in Northern Ireland on religious grounds. Following the research findings the Government announced extra funds to increase grammar school provision in Catholic schools and changed the arrangements for capital grants to permit Catholic schools to receive 100% grant. The paper suggests that the application of equity principles in this case may be relevant to the issue of denominational schools in Britain.

Ignored and Apparently Invisible : Women at Work in Northern Ireland

This paper gives an account of some of the authors' experiences as a group of women academics, interested in exploring the patterns of women's paid employment in Northern Ireland and understanding its contribution both to their lives and to the dynamics of the local economy. It examines the form that feminist criticism of official statistics has taken in the UK context. Next, it considers the case of Northern Ireland as a specific context for the debate about and reform of statistical practice. The authors argue that, while more use can be made of existing data sets, there need to be adjustments to customary practice so as better to reflect the reality of employment of women.

Workers and outlaws: Unionism and fair employment in Northern Ireland

Abstract This paper considers unionists’ perspective on fair employment. The most central aspect of the unionist position involves, paradoxically, the simultaneous denial of discrimination against nationalists and justification of their exclusion from employment. It is only through setting the unionist perspective in the context of nationalist rejection of the state that it can be seen as consistent. Unionism's position puts those who refuse to accept the legitimacy of the state into the category of outlaw. As outlaws they are beyond the protection of the law and without citizenship rights, and citizens are therefore entitled to exclude them. This is not, in unionists’ eyes, discrimination but the logical outcome of nationalists’ rejection of the polity. As the debate on fair employment is often rightly seen as a proxy debate about the nature and status of the Northern Ireland state, this analysis of unionism's viewpoint also has implications for general theories of unionist ideology. It points towards a more coherent political ideology within unionism than the “two cultural traditions” model or models based on a moderate versus reformer division can explain.

Trade Unionism, Social Justice, and Religious Discrimination in Northern Ireland

This article examines the actions of trade union leaders in response to religious discrimination in employment in Northern Ireland, and their influence on British Government policy-making on this question. The main finding is that despite the risk of alienating many members, the trade union movement persisted in seeking radical remedies for discrimination during the 1980s, and was influential in the shaping of anti-discrimination legislation enacted in 1989. The author finds points of similarity between this history and the AFL-CIO leadership's civil rights stand in the 1960s, and sees these examples as evidence that egalitarian values have played, and continue to play, an important role in shaping union purpose and action.

Fair Employment and Religion in Northern Ireland: An Overview

Unlike many of the issues raised during the Northern Ireland Civil Rights campaign of the late 1960s, employment discrimination has remained high on the political agenda, leading to two major pieces of legislation, in 1976 and 1989. Briefly examines the background to the claim of religious discrimination against Catholics, before going on to review analyses of the 1971 and 1981 censuses, the main statistical source on patterns of employment in Northern Ireland, which confirm that there are significant differentials in the socio‐economic profiles of the Catholic and Protestant communities. In addition, discusses the monitoring provisions of the 1989 Fair Employment Act and points to some current debates on how the future effectiveness of the Act should be assessed.

Labour Market Discrimination and Fair Employment in Northern Ireland: An Introduction

Provides an overview of the issue of religious discrimination in the Northern Ireland labour market.

Higher Education and Fair Employment in Northern Ireland

AbstractAs equal opportunities are assuming greater significance in higher education this paper examines the issue of fair employment in the two universities in Northern Ireland. The development of higher education and the evolution of fair employment policy which seeks to promote greater equality of opportunity in employment between Protestants and Catholics, are outlined. The employment practices and profiles of Northern Ireland's two universities are considered. Under the 1989 Fair Employment Act employment monitoring is a legal requirement for the two universities. The paper concludes by noting that other UK higher education institutions should undertake monitoring as a means of implementing equal opportunities policy.

Religion and Employment in Northern Ireland

Introduction Summary of the Argument and Procedure PART ONE Development of the Population of Northern Ireland Migration Fertility PART TWO Development of the Labour Market Employment Status of the Northern Irish Population in 1981, Area and Religion Development of the Industrial Structure Industrial Employment Structure, Employment Status and Religion Occupational Orders and Religion Education, Training and Employment Chances Obstacles to Mobility within the Labour Market Overview and Conclusion

Religion and Employment in Northern Ireland

Religion and Employment in Northern Ireland

Discrimination and Equality of Opportunity—Northern Irish Lessons

There was once a time when major social legislation was usually preceded by a broadly representative commission of inquiry, which conducted careful investigations, presented the arguments on all sides and made balanced recommendations. Some time before the present Government, the blue books began to be replaced by glossy products in which image-makers market government ideology with a highly selective use of facts. These modern products are still curiously called 'White Papers' to distinguish them from the 'Green' or consultative variety. The Report of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights (SACHR) on Fair Employment in Northern Ireland, in its blue covers, is a refreshing return to the Victorian values of objective social inquiry and of seeking a consensus for reform. The SACHR, broadly representative of the Protestant and Catholic communities and (at the time of this Report) including academic experts such as Dr J. C. McCrudden of Lincoln College, Oxford was set up under section 20 of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 to advise government on the adequacy and effectiveness of the law in preventing discrimination on the ground of religious belief or political opinion. The present review of the legislation was begun in January 1985 and published in October 1987 after an impressive programme of research and consultation. The SACHR commissioned the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) to examine the extent and nature of the differences between the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland, to investigate policies and practices at the workplace, and to research the perceptions and views of the people in Northern Ireland on matters such as inequality and discrimination.2 These showed that, despite ten years of anti-discrimination legislation (in the form of the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 (FEA 1976)), there were still massive inequalities between the

Religion and Employment in Northern Ireland

Religion and Employment in Northern Ireland

THE FAIR EMPLOYMENT (NORTHERN IRELAND) ACT 1976

The article describes the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 which seeks to promote equality of opportunity in employment in Northern Ireland between persons of different religious beliefs.