Employers who hire fewer than 50 employees are not required to report
Employers who hire fewer than 50 employees are no longer required to report, and the turnover does not count as a requirement to report anymore, the Deputy Directors: Employment Equity, Niresh Singh and Lucia Rayner, told attendees today (Friday).
Singh and Rayner were addressing Department of Labour roadshows on the national public hearings on the Employment Equity (EE) Amendment Bill & Regulations held at the Horseshoe Inn in Kimberley and at Orion Hotel, Rustenburg.
They told attendees that section 1 (b) on the definition of designated employer was amended by the deletion of paragraph (b). He said, “ In addition voluntary compliance does not apply anymore as section 14 of the Act has been deleted”, they said.
Held under the theme” Real transformation makes business sense” the public hearings are focused on soliciting comments form stakeholders on the amendments and EE reporting advocacy. The Department of Labour recently published 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 using the public hearings to gather comments to the amendments.
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.
Some of the amendments include the definition of state, Psychological testing in section 8, section 20 on EE plan and the setting of numerical goas, the replacement of Employment Conditions Commission by the National Minimum Wage Commission, section 53 on the issuing of certificates of compliance to those who want to do business with the government, et cetera.
The next hearings will take place at Fortis Hotel Witbank,167 Jellico St, Emalahleni in Mpumalanga Province on the 16th October.
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. The public hearings end on 26 October 2018 in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province. Comments to the amendments will be accepted until November 20.
NB: The EE 2018 Online reporting season is now open. The online EE reporting closes on 15 January 2019.
Enquiries:
Mokgadi Pela - Acting Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 082 808 2168
