By Lungile Ntimba
While some big businesses are up in arms over the Employment Equity Amendment Act that comes into effect on 1 January 2025, the revisions will make it easier for small enterprises to grow and focus on job creation due to less regulatory obstacles.
Larger companies are concerned about the implications of the changes, including identifying specific national economic sectors and setting numerical employment equity targets for each sector.
Also, from next year, an employer will only be considered a designated employer for purposes of the affirmative action provisions of the EEA if it hires less than 50 people.
There will no longer be any consideration for an employer’s total annual turnover.
Reacting to the amendments, which were gazetted in late November, Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth was upbeat this week about the impact of the regulatory flexibility on SMMEs.
“In the next 2025 EE reporting cycle starting on 1 September 2025, employers will have to use the published EE amended legislation to submit their EE reports. We are excited by the latest developments that small businesses will no longer have to go around spending their money on consultancy fees to source legal assistance to develop EE plans and submission of EE reports,” she said.
“We hope that the new amendments to Employment Equity will impact positively on job creation and the unemployment rate.”
Meth said the amendments came into being following the department and the Commission for Employment Equity initiating sector engagements with the intention of setting sector EE targets to push transformation in the workplace.
The main objectives of the Employment Equity Amendment Act include:
• Reducing the regulatory burden on small-scale employers.
• Empowering the minister to regulate sector specific numerical EE targets.
• Strengthening compliance, including the issuing of EE compliance certificates.
Independent business community, Sakeliga, has warned that it will legally challenge the new regulations.
“… the department and state in general lack the capability and resources to police employers at the scale required. Because the amendment act demands both the impossible and the unethical, most businesses will continue to avoid and defy it with clear consciences,” it said in a statement.
Sakeliga, which is opposed to BEE and race-based hiring targets, has called on businesspeople to remain firm and not make any changes to their employment policies, ultimately defying the law.
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