Background to the Research

• This chapter addresses several broad questions in relation to public opinion on fair employment issues and the general direction of public policy.
• The chapter examines whether there is a trend towards more acceptance of the fair employment legislation on the part of the general public and the extent to which views vary between, and within, the two communities in NI. The author raises the question as to what extent this variance parallels divisions within party support and considers whether other factors such as social class, geographical location, or experiences of discrimination or unemployment play important roles independent of religion or party persuasion in affecting people's views of the fair employment legislation.
  

Research Approach

• This chapter involves secondary analyses of data from the 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1994 NISA surveys.
  

Main Findings

Attitudes to the Fair Employment Legislation

• In all four surveys (1989, 1991, 1993, 1994) Catholics show a higher level of support for the legislation than Protestants.
• The 1994 survey showed a drop in support for the legal requirements that employers must keep a record of religion. The overall figure of 51% for 'strong support' for the legislation in 1993 drops to only 32% in 1994 which was similar to 1989 levels. This shift from supporting 'strongly' paralleled a rise in opposition with an increase from 8% in 1993 to 14% in 1994 of those opposing the legislation 'a bit' and strong opposition rising from 16% in 1993 to 25% in 1994.
• The drop in support in 1994 appears for both Protestants and Catholics and the drop was greater for Catholics (75% in 1993 to 48% 'strong support' in 1994).

Prejudice and Relations between the communities

• Figures show a gradual drop, up to the 1993 Survey, in the proportions of respondents who believe there is 'a lot' of prejudice against both Catholics and Protestants.
• The numbers estimating 'a lot' of prejudice rise for both Catholic and Protestant respondents in the 1994 Survey.
• The overall figure for 'a lot' of prejudice against Catholics rises from 25% in 1993 to 30% in 1994, while the figure for 'a lot' of prejudice against Protestants rises from 19% in 1993 to 23% in 1994.
• Apart from higher estimates of prejudice in 1994, the patterns of results are similar across all 4 surveys. Catholic respondents estimate significantly higher levels of prejudice against Catholics than Protestant respondents do. Protestant respondents give higher estimates of prejudice against Protestants than Catholic respondents do.

Experience of discrimination

• Three new questions in the 1994 NISA survey asked respondents about their personal experience of employment discrimination (in recruitment, in promotion, or by colleagues). Respondents who had not worked in the last ten years were not asked the questions.
• Small proportions of both Catholic and Protestant respondents reported at least some experience of personal discrimination themselves.
• Proportionately more Catholics reported discrimination for all three questions in comparison to Protestants but in the case of job applications the difference between the two religious groups was not statistically significant.
• 6.3% of Catholics reported having been refused a job for religious reasons compared to 4.2 % of Protestants
• 4.9% of Catholics reported having been refused a promotion for religious reasons compared to 2.3% of Protestants
• 5.8% of Catholics felt they were treated unfairly at work by colleagues compared to 2.0% of Protestants.

Experience of unemployment

• Discussions of fair employment and equality of opportunity in NI have often centred around the issue of unemployment.
• NI, at the time of these surveys, had one of the highest unemployment rates in the United Kingdom.
• The high unemployment rates imply that job gains in one community may mean job losses for the other community.
• There is some agreement that a substantial portion of the differential in unemployment rates between Protestants and Catholics can be explained by differences in the demographic and social characteristics of the two communities.
• Disagreement in terms of quantitative analysis remains around the size of the differential in unemployment rates which cannot be ascribed to background characteristics. Some argue that this is negligible. There is also debate about whether this differential can be ascribed to discrimination.
• Multivariate analysis indicated some general patterns. Religion and affiliation to political party as independent variables are consistently those that have the strongest effects on the dependent attitudinal variables. Only two of the 13 dependent variables showed no effect of either religion or support of a political party.
• For 12 of the 13 dependent factor variables of attitudes towards equal opportunity issues, current unemployment did not have a significant effect. While unemployment plays a central role in debates in fair employment in NI, the actual experience of unemployment itself seems to play a more peripheral role regarding people's opinions on fair employment issues.

Conclusions

• The author commented that the main conclusion seems to be that the trend towards a gradual moderation of viewpoints by both Catholic and Protestant respondents is "more apparent than real". He indicates that 'random fluctuations' rather than a trend to moderate views would better describe the pattern across the span of data from 1989 to 1994.
• There is a more optimistic message regarding support for fair employment legislation asked for the first time in 1994. Large majorities of respondents from both communities expressed support for having the fair employment laws and thought that both communities received equal treatment under the legislation from the Fair Employment Commission.