The Department of Employment and Labour in the North West has cautioned employers against non-compliance with Employment Equity Act (EEA) during the its annual employment equity workshop for the province which was held virtually yesterday.
The workshops are being held under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense”.
Speaking during the session, the Provincial Chief Inspector, Boikie Mampuru said most of the challenges they experience during their reactive/proactive inspections are that of employers amending Approved Employment Equity (EE) plans without informing the Department and Employers providing incorrect information on their EE reports, plans, analysis & EEA 7 amongst others.
For the 2020/2021 financial year the Inspection and Enforcement branch in the province had hundred and ten (110) EE focused inspections which were either reviews/re-assessment or monitoring. Of the sixty one (61) reviews conducted, nineteen were still non-compliant and were issued with Director General’s Recommendations which gave them sixty (60) days to comply; and in addition one from this nineteen was referred for Prosecution.
“Some of the reasons given for this non-compliance are that employers would claim to have lost documents when contract with Consultants ends or the EE Manager resigns; or employer confusing Accounting Officers (CEO) with Financial Directors or Office Managers. These a minor but serious transgressions that can have the compliance certificate withdrawn,” said Mampuru
This workshop was also part of the department’s plan to give an update on the EE amendments and EE sector targets. EE amendments are currently in parliament for processing and are expected to become an Act once all the necessary processes are finalised by March 2022.
The Amendment of the EE Act of 1998 is intended to achieve the following:
To reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses.
Empower the Employment and Labour Minister to regulate sector specific EE numerical goals.
To promulgate section 53 of the EEA for the issuing of the EE Compliance Certificate.
The workshops was targeted at employers and their employers’ organisations; Human Resources Executives and EEA Practitioners; EE Forum members; Assigned Senior Managers/Transformation Managers, Academics; Employees and Trade Unions; Labour Relations Practitioners; and Civil Society Organisations among others.
These workshops started early this month focusing on all the provinces. The remaining province is Mpumalanga and its workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, 28 September 2021.
More details are available on our www.labour.gov.za. Meanwhile, the EE reporting season for both manual and online reporting opened on 01 September 2021. The manual EE reporting period closes on 01 October 2021 and the online period closes in January 2022.
Source: Government of South Africa