Curtain falls on Employment Equity Amendment Bill and Regulations public hearings - Department of Labour
The Department of Labour Employment Equity (EE) Directorate will this week wind off its national public hearings to solicit comments on Employment Equity Amendment Bill and the Draft Employment Equity Regulations
The Department of Labour has been on a national roadshow since the beginning of the month following last month’s (September) publishing of the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and the Draft Employment Equity Regulations in the Government Gazette in response to the slow pace of transformation in the workplaces.
The Department is also using the public hearings to advocate for EE reporting.
The last public hearings will be held at the Park Lodge Hotel – 232 Jeff Masemola Street in Pretoria (on Thursday) 25 October, and at Isizwe Hospitality – 14 Turf Club Street in Turffontein, Johannesburg on 26 October.
The public hearings are held under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense”.
The key objectives of the EE amendments are:
- Introduction of provisions and regulatory requirements for the promulgation of Section 53 to ensure employers financially benefiting from State contracts comply with the EE Act.
- To bring alignment between definitions, policy provisions and the administration systems and enhancing on the collection of data for the National Minimum Wage Commission,
- Introduction of provisions in the EE Amendment Bill and regulations for the consultation and setting of numerically based sector targets across various occupational levels to ensure an equitably represented workforce,
- To make reporting requirements easier for designated employers who are small employers
The public hearings on Employment Equity amendments & Regulations started on 02 October in East London. Public hearings have also been held in Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Kimberley, Rustenburg, Witbank, Polokwane and Bloemfontein.
The public hearings are open to employers or heads of organisations, academics, assigned senior managers, consultative EE forum members, human resource practitioners, trade unions representatives and employees
The EE public hearings are held from 08:30 to 14:00.
NB: The EE 2018 Online reporting season is now open. The online EE reporting closes on 15 January 2019.
