Two convicted former IRA men were in the Appeal Court in Belfast today over the Simon Community's refusal to employ them because of their terrorist backgrounds.
The case was first referred to the Fair Employment Tribunal in 2005, which found the two men had been discriminated against because of their political view. But it found their convictions removed protection against political discrimination under the Fair Employment and Treatment [NI] Order 1998.
Although the tribunal accepted they did not support violence at the time of seeking the jobs, Sean McConkey (50), from west Belfast, and Jervis Marks (40), from Forkhill Co Armagh, referred their case to the Appeal Court to establish whether they can be discriminated against for the rest of their lives.
Mr McConkey was sentenced to life for murder after a supergrass trial in 1983. He lost an appeal in 1986 and was released by the Life Sentence Review Commission in March 1997.
Mr 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 Belfast Agreement.
The men's barrister, Karen Quinlivan, told the Appeal Court that Mr McConkey was appointed a residential support worker for the Simon Community on the Falls Road in August 2000 but that the job offer was withdrawn four weeks after security checks revealed his conviction.
She said Mr 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," Ms Quinlivan told the court today.
She argued the tribunal's interpretation of the law meant someone could be the subject of permanent discrimination because of involvement in republican violence.
She claimed the Fair Employment Treatment Order had recognised at that time in the peace process there were "large numbers of people moving into a new way of thinking". Ms Quinlivan also argued that earlier legislation enacted at the height of the Troubles in the mid-1970s gave employment protection to those who had disavowed violence.
The case continues.
PA