Several employees have questioned the validity of employment equity reports submitted to the Department of Labour by their companies, Mpho Nkeli, Chairperson of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) said today (Friday).
In their messages to her, they said "employers tend to overstate the representation of black people at management levels".
Nkeli said: "These reports are signed by managing directors and chief executive officers and they will be held liable for approving the submissions that misrepresent their EE profile.
"Some human resource practitioners too have complained that their managing directors sign the reports without applying due care and abdicate the transformation responsibilities to human resource," she said.
"Employers have begun submitting their annual employment equity reports and we urge CEOs to apply their minds before signing the reports to confirm accuracy of the reports.
"We remind employees that they are able to obtain a copy of the submitted EE report of their employer, or of any company, by completing the EEA11 form available on the department's website: http://www.labour.gov.za. A revenue stamp must be attached to this form before submitting to the department."
Nkeli said anybody may request a copy of any EE report that was submitted because it is public information, even reports from a competing company. Employees and the general public may, however, not request information on the income differential statement as this is not public information.
Notwithstanding the fact that law requires designated employers to make their EE reports available to all employees, employees have this addition option to verify the accuracy of data contained in EE reports, engage with the employer, or lodge an anonymous complaint with the department, including its provincial offices and labour centres. Labour inspectors in each province will follow-up on complaints.
Employers who do indeed over-state information in their EE reports are not only committing fraud, but give raise to a concern that the slow pace of transformation may be even slower than indicated in the recently launched 10th CEE annual report.
Contact:
Page Boikanyo
Cell: 082 809 3195
