Former IRA men in court appeal over job discrimination
Two former IRA men went to the Appeal Court in Belfast today to challenge an employment tribunal’s upholding of the Simon Community’s refusal to employ them because of their terrorist backgrounds.
The Fair Employment Tribunal said in 2005 that the two men had been discriminated against on the ground of their political opinion.
However, the case was lost because of the impact of a section of the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998.
Although the Tribunal accepted the two ex-prisoners no longer supported the use of violence when they sought the jobs, it found their conflict-related convictions removed protection against political discrimination.
Sean McConkey (aged 50), from West Belfast and Jervis Marks (aged 40), from Forkhill Co Armagh, went to the Appeal Court seeking clarity on whether under the law their previous convictions for paramilitary crime permitted discrimination into perpetuity.
McConkey was sentenced to life for murder after a supergrass trial in 1983. He lost an appeal in 1986 and was eventually released by the Life Sentence Review Commission in March 1997.
Marks was sentenced to 15 years in 1993 after being convicted of conspiracy to murder and explosives offences. He was released in October 1998 under the early release terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
The men’s barrister, Karen Quinlivan, told the Appeal Court McConkey was appointed to a position with the Simon Community – as a residential support worker at the charity’s Falls Road shelter – in August 2000 but that the appointment was withdrawn four weeks later when security checks showed up his conviction.
She said Marks was not offered a job when he went through a recruitment exercise in 2002 and checks revealed his convictions.
She argued the tribunal ruling meant that someone convicted for a non-paramilitary murder would have been appointed to a post.
“It is the paramilitary element which prevented appointment. They were less favourably treated because of paramilitary involvement.”
She said in the case of McConkey he was not even given an opportunity to discuss his conviction with the charity – as provided for under the legislation - and while Marks had undergone discussions his forswearing of violence was not taken into account.
Ms Quinlivan argued the tribunal’s interpretation of the law meant someone could be discriminated against in perpetuity because of involvement in republican violence.
She claimed the Fair Employment Treatment Order had in fact recognised at that time in the peace process there were “large numbers of people moving into a new way of thinking”.
She said that earlier legislation enacted at the height of the troubles in the mid 1970s gave employment protection to those who had put violence behind them.
The case continues.
