MEMORIES of a key event in the long battle for equality in the workplace have been sparked by last week's Eye In The Past column.
The popular column featured a front page story from March 5 1977 when we reported on allegations of job bias at the Ford Factory in Finaghy where a survey found that Catholics working at the plant were engaged in lower paid jobs.
After reading the throwback feature, a West Belfast man and former Ford employee shared the remarkable story of when ten Catholic workers walked out of the factory on St Patrick's Day in 1983 after being denied time off for family and personal reasons.
The former union rep said: "Ten Catholics had applied for time off in the afternoon, with their reasons of family concerns, medical appointments and personal reasons but they were all denied.
"Four Protestants also applied for time off that afternoon, giving the reason as the official opening of Dunmurry Golf Club. Many had requested their half day after the Catholic employees and their requests were approved.
"The Catholic employees were then disciplined and they took their case to the Fair Employment Agency who found Ford guilty of religious discrimination in 1985.
"I believe it was in the minds of the Ford management that they did not believe the reasons for the Catholic employees wanting time off and simply rejected them because it was St Patrick's Day and thought they wanted to celebrate the day.
"However Ford from its world headquarters down to its local Belfast management learnt very little and were later found guilty of sex discrimination against a female employee, perceived to be Catholic."
The former employee believes that the actions of the Catholic employees that day proved pivotal in bringing about fair employment in the North.
"I admire the courage of these Catholic employees who walked out that day, knowing they could face dismissal and with little or no trade union support," he added. "I believe their actions greatly contributed to the changes in employment policies, practice and law since that day in the North of Ireland.
"Their courage emboldened other employees in all walks of life to demand their equality is their right.
"Workforces in the North of Ireland are now more balanced and fair. Recruitment and promotions can be monitored. Places of employment are now a more neutral and fair environment, helping to create a better and fairer future for the next generations.
"For that, we have to thank the ten Catholics who refused to be treated unfairly because of their religion. They adapted the mantle of Rosa Parks and refused to get off the bus. They are the 1983 St Patrick’s Day heroes.
"Ford opened its plant in 1964 and closed it in 2009. It once had 14 managers – only one was a Catholic. Ninety-one per cent of the skilled workforce were Protestant.
"It is safe to believe that the same religious discrimination or worse was happening at the same time in other factories and offices in the North of Ireland."
