Three Catholic civil servants in Belfast have begun a legal challenge to their removal from high-ranking posts within the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Lawyers for the three claim a cross-party body of Stormont MLA's, chaired by the DUP, treated them differently to a senior Protestant colleague.
Just weeks after the establishment of the DUP-Sinn Féin led power sharing government at Stormont, three of the Assembly's top secretariat staff - Joe Reynolds, Clare McGivern and Tom Evans, who had been on secondment - were sent back to their original departments with salary losses of up to £14,000.
Tom Evans said a negative review, which prompted their departure, had damaged his reputation and career.
Lawyers for the three accused the Assembly Commission of acting in bad faith and with indecent haste.
A lawyer for the Assembly rejected the claims of religious discrimination, saying both Sinn Féin and the SDLP had sat on the body which had removed the civil servants.
He said it was not an arguable case that nationalists and republicans had participated in a decision making process motivated by religious belief.
