The Department of Labour (DoL) urges employers to have in place Employment Equity (EE) plans to ensure easy compliance with the implementation of the law.
Jullian Mohale, a manager responsible for Advocacy, Monitoring and Compliance in the DoL’s EE Directorate told a workshop at the La Vita Conference Centre in Durban today that workplace forums in which both the employer representatives and the workers participate were key in the consultation process on matters of EE.
Mohale said workplace forums are critical to enable an organisation through a consultative process to develop EE plan(s). Mohale said an ideal EE Plan was one that spans three to five years. He said an EE Plan should contain objectives and be measurable, have the name of the company, the start and an end date (before a review), workforce profile; barriers and affirmative action measures; monitoring and compliance; a responsible person in charge of EE plans.
“In the year under review it is important that every designated employer must submit their reports,” he said.
Designate employers are those that employ 150 employees or more, and those employers who despite employing less than 150 employees generate the required minimum turnover threshold.
The Department of Labour’s EE Directorate Unit series of national roadshows started this week on Tuesday, 13 August in the Western Cape. The national workshops are designed to create awareness and compliance with the implementation of the Employment Equity Act.
The workshops are held under the theme: “Bridging the Equity Gap”. Unlike in the past, this year’s workshops will be targeting specific sectors. All the workshops will be held from 10h00 – 13h00.
Some of the sectors in the economy that will receive specific focus for roadshows’ presentations include: Agriculture, Catering, Community, Construction, Electrical/Electricity, Finance, Manufacturing, Mining, Personal Services, Retail, Social, Transport;and Wholesale.
The aim of the workshops is to create awareness on compliance with the EEA, encourage designated employers on successful EE reporting particularly On-Line Reporting for the period 2013, increase the quality of large employer EE Reports analysed by 15% which is 5 555 in this reporting cycle from 4 831 reports analysed in 2012 reporting period; and to publicise and promote the Public Register for 2012 reporting.
The workshops are targeted at Human Resource executive and practitioners, assigned senior EE managers/transformation managers; EE forum members and trade unions among others. Meanwhile, Themba Nkosi an assistant manager in the EE Directorate implored organisations ‘to go green’ and use the electronic submission option when the EE reporting season start by visiting the department’s website.
The 2013 EE submission season for both manual and electronic submission opens on 1 September 2013. Manual submissions close on 1 October 2013 and online submissions close on 15 January 2014. In 2012 some 90% of employers used online reporting.
