All workplace stakeholders need to be consulted before EE plans are submitted to Department of Labour
The Department of Labour has implored that all internal stakeholders needed to be consulted before employment equity (EE) plans were submitted to the department.
In his address during the workshop, Department of Labour EE Directorate, Assistant Director, Innocent Makwarela said the chief executive of organizations or heads, EE Forums, and trade unions should as stakeholders all see the EE reports before they are submitted to the Department of Labour.
Makwarela also took time to encourage employers to use the online reporting to file their EE report because the method was user-friendly.
He was speaking during a workshop designed to strengthen employment equity implementation and compliance mechanisms. The workshop was held at the Premier Hotel, in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal.
The workshops held under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense” - are part of a national, annual campaign by the department to encourage employers to submit EE report plans.
The Department of Labour also uses the workshop to create awareness on compliance with the Employment Equity Act, publicise and help prepare the employers with the requirements needed to be used when submitting their online 2017 EE reports to the Department.
This year’s workshops will interrogate the following:
- To publicise the Amended Code of Good Practice on the Preparation and Implementation of the EE plans,
- To encourage employers to submit EE reports online,
- To publicise the 17th CEE Annual Report and the 2016 EE Public Register, and
- To represent current CCMA cases on Employment Equity Act.
Department of Labour EE Deputy Director: Niresh Singh reiterated the importance to employers of following the Code of Good Practice on the preparation and submission of the EE plans.
The annual workshops started on 11 July in Kimberley. More workshops have been held in Rustenburg, Nelspruit, Thohoyandou, Polokwane and Bloemfontein.
The next EE workshop will be held tomorrow (August 2) in Durban at the Olive Convention Centre.
The remaining workshops will be held as follows: Eastern Cape, East London (15 August) and Port Elizabeth (16 August); Western Cape, George (22 August) and Cape Town (24 August); Gauteng, Pretoria (05 September) targeting mainly government departments at national and provincial level, Ekurhuleni (06 September), Vaal (07 September) and Ekurhuleni (08 September) targeting mainly municipalities.
The Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has partnered with the Department of Labour to share information on the status of employment equity case load.
CCMA Commissioner, Navie Green-Thompson said that transformation in the workplaces was a process and not a single act.
"A workplace has not transformed just because it has a more diverse looking workplace," Green-Thompson cautioned.
Green-Thompson disclosed that in May 2017 alone there were 318 cases of unfair discrimination based on arbitrary ground, 121 referrals on equal pay for work of equal value based on arbitrary grounds; 38 cases referred based on unfair discrimination based on race; 37 cases referred based on sexual harassment; 25 cases on the protection of employee rights; 12 on discrimination based on age and eight based on equal pay for work of equal value based on age.
The workshops are targeting: human resources executives and practitioners; EE Forum members; assigned senior EE managers/transformation managers; academics and trade unions among others.
The EE national workshops are held from 08:30-14:00.
Meanwhile, the EE Online and Manual reporting season opens on 01 September 2017.
For more information contact:
Lungelo Mkamba
Provincial Communications Officer (PCO): KwaZulu-Natal
Cell: 079 889 0719
Tel: 031 366 2018
Email: Lungelo.mkamba@labour.gov.za
Or
Department of Labour: Chief Director Communication
Teboho Thejane
Cell: 082 697 0694
