PHUTI MOSOMANE
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020, the Presidency announced on Wednesday.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020 was passed by Parliament on 17 May 2022.
The bill amends the Employment Equity Act, 1998 and aims to promote equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through affirmative action measures.
The amendments include strengthening the enforcement mechanisms for compliance with the Act and increasing the fines for non-compliance.
Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson to the President, said that the Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020 seeks to advance the transformation of South Africa’s workforce by setting equity targets for economic sectors and geographical regions, and requiring enterprises to develop transformation plans.
COSATU spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the bill provides much needed interventions to strengthen the government’s ability to hold employers accountable for their role and failures to adhere to the Employment Equity Act.
“We call on society to resist the usual notion by pessimists who believe that treating workers unfairly is the way to growing the economy. Workers who are treated with respect, paid a living wage and whose rights are respected, have been shown by countless research to be the most motivated and thus contributing to a more productive workplace and economy,” Pamla said.
Among its key provisions, the amendment bill empowers the Minister of Employment and Labour to set employment-equity targets for economic sectors, as well as regions where transformation is lagging.
The amendment bill also empowers the Minister of Employment and Labour to regulate compliance criteria to issue Compliance Certificates as per Section 53 of the Employment Equity Act.
The amended Act also allows the Minister of Employment and Labour to set regional targets given that racial diversity in South Africa often has regional differences.
The law requires employers with more than 50 employees to submit employment equity plans for their companies, spelling out how they will achieve these targets.
Employers are then required to submit annual reports to the Department of Employment and Labour.
In the area of remuneration, the law requires employers to pay workers equal pay for equal work.
The bill further provides definitions of discrimination and sets out what workers can do when facing such discrimination – including lodging grievances with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, or the Labour Courts.
Companies seeking to do business with the state will be required to submit a certificate from the Department confirming that they are in compliance with the Employment Equity Act and its objectives, and that they do not pay their employees less than the national minimum wage.
As part of ensuring the employment equity objectives become reality, the law now compels labour inspectors to inspect workplaces and to issue employers with compliance orders.
The Department of Employment and Labour has committed to increase the number of labour inspectors and health and safety inspectors who will enforce compliance.
However, not everyone is impressed with the amendment bill.
Parliament heard during hearings from organisations such as the Business Unity SA (Busa) and the SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC) that forcing compliance with the targets as a precondition to secure state contracts in government was “unconstitutional”.
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