The Department of Employment and Labour is deeply concerned about false claims that are being propagated within the media regarding the recommendations proposed by the Inspector to Beyers Chocolates CC. To this end, the Department would like to set the record straight.
Labour inspectors are empowered to interview persons and inspect workplaces with regards to implementation of relevant Employment Laws in workplaces. Where there are contraventions, these are dealt with as per prescripts in the laws.
In the space of Employment Equity Act(EEA), the Department indiscriminately chooses designated employers and subjects them to a Director General (DG) review in terms of Section 44 of the EEA. A DG review is a process wherein an inspector requests documents from the employer to check whether the company complies with the requirements of Employment Equity Act. Upon receiving the documents, the inspector subjects these to a rigorous assessment.
Thereafter, DG Recommendations are drafted and presented to the employer. If the employer is not complying with certain sections of the Act, in particular sections 24, 16, 19 & 20 the inspector will issue recommendations to the employer to comply with the said sections.
In the case of Beyers Chocolates, the first inspection was conducted on 19 February 2019. The employer was found to be non compliant and was given 60 days to comply and submit the documents on the 60th day to the Inspector. The employer met the deadline. Then the Inspector conducted the reassessment on (19 December 2019) of the documents with the intention of approving the plan if it met the requirement set by the Act.
Every designated employer is required to design and implement an Employment Equity plan. The purpose of the Employment Equity plan is to enable the employer "to achieve reasonable progress towards employment equity", to assist in eliminating unfair discrimination in the workplace, and to achieve equitable representation of employees from designated groups by means of affirmative action.
Designated employers have four main obligations (detailed in the following section), to achieve the equitable representation of Africans , Women and People living with disabilities in the workplace. The central mechanism to achieve this objective is through the development, implementation and monitoring of an approved Employment Equity Plan.
In the case of the employer in question, there was an over representation of African Females at lower levels and an over representation of White Males at Senior Management levels. Inspectors are empowered to make such comments since the law enables them to assess plans against demographic details of the area a company is operating in. It is duplicitous for the employer to run to the media instead of addressing his concerns with the Inspector with the department.
Furthermore, the employer has projected (in his Employment Equity Plan) to reduce the number of African females by 2021 from 34 to 10 at unskilled level and 193 to 170 at semi skilled level. However, his strategy falls short of unpacking how they will be progressing to higher levels.
The employer is projecting 5 opportunities at Senior Management level while giving two to African females and one to a white female who are already exceeding demographics at that level despite being absent at the lower level. The opportunity given to white females could have been used to further augment the two projected for African females to affirm them at Senior Management level as they are a majority in the company.
The department is organising advocacy session with the employer together with the Employment Equity Forum at the workplace because the employer has a plan but does not have strategy to ensure the progression of females to upper level.
The department would like to reiterate that there are procedure to register a dispute, media is not one of them.
As we believe in consultation, we would like to extend an invitation to this employer and any other employer who has a dispute to use proper procedures to discuss their legitimate concerns.So, to be clear, the department encourages the employer to learn and interpret Employment Equity Acts and recommendations proposed by Inspectors.
Enquiries:
Teboho Thejane
Cell: 082 697 0694
