Employment Equity

Designated employers are employers who employee 50 or more employees, employers who employ less than 50 employees but whose annual turnover exceeds or equals the amounts in schedule 4 of the EEA, or an employer who has been declared a designated employer in terms of a collective agreement.

The purpose of the Employment Equity Act, No 55 of 1998 is to achieve equity in the workplace by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through elimination of unfair discrimination and implementing affirmative action measures to redress the disadvantages in employment experienced by designated groups, in order to ensure equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce.

Certain state organs are excluded, such as the National Defence Force, the National Intelligence Agency and the South African Secret Service. Designated groups are Africans, Coloureds, and Indians, woman of all races, and people with disabilities.

All designated employers must, in terms of Section 21 of the Employment Equity Act of 1998 submit their annual report annually. The reporting deadline is 1 October annually, if you submit manually or by post. Reports cannot be submitted via e-mail or fax.

The Department of Labour has also launched an Employment Equity Online Reporting System where reports can be submitted electronically. The deadline for online submissions is 15 January annually.

Employers must consult with the unions and employees in order to make sure that the plan is accepted by everybody and to allow all parties to have fair input

Employers must analyse all employment policies, practices and procedures, and prepare a profile of their workforce in order to identify any problems relating to employment Equity.

Employers must prepare and implement an employment Equity plan, setting out the affirmative action measures they intend taking to achieve the employment Equity goals. (EEA2 & EEA4)

Employers must report to the Department of Labour on the implementation of the plan in order for the department to monitor their compliance.

Employers must display a summary of the provisions of the act in all languages relevant to their workplace.  

Conducting a workplace analysis (EEA12) to compare their workplace demographics to the countrys' Regional and National Economically Active Population (EAP)

Plan to align the company to better represent all demographics as outlined by the governement per industry. (EEA13)

The Employment Equity Commission is taking action against companies who fail to comply with the requirements of the Employment Equity Act.

The new proposed act did not come in effect yet, but will impact smaller companies with less than 50 staff that will no longer need to submit their annual reports regardless of their annual turnover, as well as larger companies will need to comply with stricter guidelines per industry to reach targets in order to get the compliance certficate issued annually.

The Department of Labour randomly inspect organisations to ensure compliance with the Act and penalties/fines can be issued for non-compliance with the Act.