(a) The State Treasurer shall review the major investment holdings of the state for the purpose of determining the extent to which state funds are invested in companies doing business in Northern Ireland which have not adopted the MacBride principles. Whenever feasible and consistent with the fiduciary duties of the State Treasurer, companies in which the state has invested assets and which have operations in Northern Ireland shall be urged to adopt and implement the MacBride principles with respect to such operations and where necessary and appropriate to initiate or support shareholder initiatives requiring such corporate action.

(b) The State Treasurer may divest, decide not to further invest state funds or not enter into any future investment in any company unless such company has implemented the MacBride principles, which are as follows: (1) Increasing the representation of individuals from underrepresented religious groups in the workforce, including managerial, supervisory, administrative, clerical and technical jobs; (2) providing adequate security for the protection of minority employees at the workplace and while traveling to and from work; (3) banning provocative religious or political emblems from the workplace; (4) publicly advertising all job openings and making special recruitment efforts to attract applicants from underrepresented religious groups; (5) layoff, recall and termination procedures which do not in practice favor particular religious groupings; (6) abolishing job reservations, apprenticeship restrictions and differential employment criteria, which discriminate on the basis of religion or ethnic origin; (7) developing training programs that will prepare substantial numbers of current minority employees for skilled jobs, including the expansion of existing programs and the creation of new programs to train, upgrade and improve the skills of minority employees; (8) establishing procedures to assess, identify and actively recruit minority employees with potential for further advancement; and (9) appointing a senior management staff member to oversee the company's affirmative action efforts and the setting up of timetables to carry out affirmative action principles.

(c) The State Treasurer shall, at least once per fiscal year, provide a report to the Investment Advisory Council on actions taken by the Treasurer pursuant to the provisions of this section.

(d) The provisions of this section shall no longer be effective on and after January 1, 2020.

(P.A. 87-199, S. 1, 2; P.A. 95-345, S. 1, 2; P.A. 96-180, S. 136, 166; P.A. 12-203, S. 1.)

History: P.A. 95-345 amended Subsec. (b) by deleting the words “adopted and” from the phrase “such corporation has adopted and implemented the MacBride principles”, effective July 1, 1995; P.A. 96-180 amended Subsec. (b) to make technical grammatical corrections, effective June 3, 1996; P.A. 12-203 amended Subsec. (a) by changing “policies” to “holdings”, “moneys” to “state funds”, “corporations” to “companies” and “In whatever manner may be deemed appropriate by” to “Whenever feasible and consistent with the fiduciary duties of”, amended Subsec. (b) by deleting “In carrying out his fiduciary responsibility”, deleting requirement that State Treasurer disinvest state funds within 3 years following May 18, 1987, and invest no new state funds in any corporation doing business in Northern Ireland not implementing MacBride principles, deleting requirement that State Treasurer invest state funds available for future investment in corporations doing business in Northern Ireland in accordance with MacBride principles, adding “may divest, decide not to further invest state funds or not enter into any future investment in any company” and changing “corporation” to “company”, and added Subsecs. (c) re required report and (d) re effectiveness of provisions, effective July 1, 2012.