For the past four weeks, the Department of Labour’s (DoL) Employment Equity (EE) Directorate’s team has been traversing the length and breadth of South Africa conducting the EE briefing sessions, and tomorrow (September) marks the end of the workshops and now the spotlight shifts to EE report submissions.
The last EE workshop by the Department of Labour will be held at Indaba Hotel & Conference Centre, Fourways in Gauteng Province. The workshop is targeting the Financing, Mining and Transport Sectors. It will start at 10:00-13:00.
Tomorrow’s session is a culmination of a series of workshops that were held under the theme: “Bridging the Equity Gap” - across South Africa. The workshops were aimed at creating awareness on compliance with the EE Act; encourage designated employers on successful EE reporting particularly On-Line Reporting for the period 2013; increase the quality of large employer EE Reports; and to publicise and promote the Public Register for 2012 reporting.
This year’s EE roadshows were significant in that these were held in a year in which the new EEA is undergoing a review and is expected to be passed into law. The new Act proposes that EE Reporting should be made mandatory for all employers.
To date, the Department of Labour has conducted no less than 18 EE workshops engaging with human resource practitioners and executives: assigned senior EE managers/transformation managers; EE forum members and trade unions among others. As the department concludes the workshops the spotlight now shifts to the submission of EE Reports.
The 2013 EE reporting season started on 1 September 2013. The reporting season is open for both manual and electronic submissions. Manual submissions closes on the 1st October 2013, while on online submissions will close on 15 January 2014.
