[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 424 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Overall unemployment in Northern Ireland exceeds 14 
        percent.
            (2) Unemployment in some neighborhoods of Northern Ireland 
        comprised of religious minorities has exceeded 70 percent.
            (3) The British Government Fair Employment Commission 
        (F.E.C.), formerly the Fair Employment Agency (F.E.A.), has 
        consistently reported that a member of the minority community 
        is two and one-half times more likely to be unemployed than a 
        member of the majority community.
            (4) The Industrial Development Organization for Northern 
        Ireland lists twenty-five firms in Northern Ireland which are 
        controlled by United States persons.
            (5) The Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), 
        Washington, District of Columbia, lists forty-nine publicly 
        held and nine privately held United States companies doing 
        business in Northern Ireland.
            (6) The religious minority population of Northern Ireland 
        is frequently subject to discriminatory hiring practices by 
        United States businesses which have resulted in a 
        disproportionate number of minority individuals holding menial 
        and low-paying jobs.
            (7) The MacBride Principles are a nine point set of 
        guidelines for fair employment in Northern Ireland which 
        establishes a corporate code of conduct to promote equal access 
        to regional employment but does not require disinvestment, 
        quotas, or reverse discrimination.

SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON IMPORTS.

    An article from Northern Ireland may not be entered, or withdrawn 
from warehouse for consumption, in the customs territory of the United 
States unless there is presented at the time of entry to the customs 
officer concerned 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 PRINCIPLES.

    (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 necessasry 
steps to insure 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 report, signed 
        under oath, on showing compliance with the provisions of this 
        Act; and
            (2) such other information as the Secretary determines is 
        necessary.

SEC. 5. MACBRIDE PRINCIPLES.

    The principles referred to in section 4, which are based on the 
MacBride Principles, are as follows:
            (1) Eliminating religious discrimination in managerial, 
        supervisory, administrative, clerical, and technical jobs and 
        significantly increasing the representation in such jobs of 
        individuals from underrepresented religious groups.
            (2) Providing adequate security for the protection of 
        minority employees at the workplace.
            (3) Banning provocative sectarian and political emblems 
        from the workplace.
            (4) Advertising publicly all job openings and undertaking 
        special recruitment efforts to attract applicants from 
        underrepresented religious groups.
            (5) Establishing layoff, recall, and termination procedures 
        which do not favor particular religious groupings.
            (6) Providing equal employment for all employees, including 
        implementing equal and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions 
        of employment for all employees, and abolishing job 
        reservations, apprenticeship restrictions, and differential 
        employment criteria, which discriminate on the basis of 
        religion or ethnic origin.
            (7) Developing training programs that will prepare 
        substantial numbers of minority employees for managerial, 
        supervisory, administrative, clerical, and technical jobs, 
        including--
                    (A) expanding existing programs and forming new 
                programs to train, upgrade, and improve the skills of 
                all categories of minority employees;
                    (B) creating on-the-job training programs and 
                facilities to assist minority employees to advance to 
                higher paying jobs requiring greater skills; and
                    (C) establishing and expanding programs to enable 
                minority employees to further their education and 
                skills at recognized education facilities.
            (8) Establishing procedures to assess, identify, and 
        actively recruit minority individuals with potential for 
        further advancement, and identifying those minority individuals 
        who have high management potential and enrolling them in 
        accelerated management programs.
            (9) Appointing a senior management staff member to oversee 
        the United States person's compliance with the principles 
        described in this section.

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 
disapproving the waiver. In the computation of such ninety-day period, 
there shall be excluded the days on which either 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 consideration 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 establishment 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 percent or more of the 
        voting securities of the corporation, 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 enterprise 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 enterprise; or
            (6) the United States person has authority to appoint the 
        chief operating officer of the corporation, partnership, or 
        enterprise.

SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall take effect six months after the date of enactment 
of this Act.

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