Short Brothers, the Belfast aerospace company, is facing a wave of unfair dismissal claims after a change in its redundancy policy left Protestants more likely to lose their jobs.
The dispute comes amid a political stalemate ahead of next week's talks between rival unionist and republican parties aimed at restoring Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly.
The "last in, first out" policy is considered best practice in most UK workplaces, but Short abandoned it because in Northern Ireland it is likely to fall most heavily on Roman Catholics.
The most recent recruits tend to include a disproportionately large number of Catholics as Northern Ireland employers have sought to redress a legacy of anti-Catholic practices. The dispute has come to light following parliamentary questions.
Ms Jane Kennedy, Northern Ireland minister, told Mr Peter Robinson, DUP MP for east Belfast, there had been 353 unfair dismissal complaints against Shorts in 2003. The bulk cite "unfair selection for redundancy".
Mr Jackie Pollack, regional officer of Amicus, which combines the MSF and AEWU unions, said: "A lot of Protestants feel they are being discriminated against as a result of the change." Shorts stopped using length of service criteria in selecting staff for redundancy last March after announcing 600 job cuts.
It said the policy would upset the progress made in increasing the proportion of Catholics in its workforce, which is still 85 per cent Protestant. Roman Catholics make up 42 per cent of Northern Ireland's population.
The company had based selection on discipline and time-keeping, as well as length of service. But after letting go of about 1,200 workers in 2002 it found the process gave unwanted prominence to length of service. - (Financial Times)