Employment Equity Amendment Bill may expedite race and gender quotas in the Workplace
Employment Equity Amendment Bill may expedite race and gender quotas in the Workplace
Despite perilous economic circumstances in the country, the government wants the pace of transformation to be accelerated.
This is the driving force behind the much-debated Employment Equity Amendment Bill.
Notably, hopes and views were rampant as business formations from various industries interacted with Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour Equity, suggesting that the Employment Equity Amendment Bill should have a clause for adequate sector-to-sector consultation.
This Bill seeks to amend a number of clauses in the existing Employment Equity Act (EEA) which deals directly with affirmative action measurement.
For purposes of this blog, emphasis is placed on the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and its possible impact on the BEE scorecard.
Understanding the impact of the Employment Equity Amendment Bill
The Bill pursues empowerment of the Minister to inter alia identify national economic sectors that will ensure the equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups in the workplace. This will ultimately apply to any identified economic sector at national level.
If unaltered by public comment, we may well see a different approach to employment equity compliance with an increased pace of transformation.
The Bill proposes to include the requirement of numerical goals set for designated employers in terms of their employment equity plan. Business formations petitioned that the Minister should consult with all parties involved before adopting specific sectoral targets. If not negotiated by all, input and consultation with employees or representative trade unions may become meaningless.
There is also growing concern about further consequences and fines for designated employers who do not comply within a particular period with the proposed sectoral targets. A system-generated certificate will be issued to employers confirming their level of compliance with the provisions of the Employment Equity Act (EEA). This is a prerequisite for contracting with any organ of the state.
Designated employers and the Employment Equity Amendment Bill
Suitably, the Bill endorses employers who employ fewer than 50 people (regardless of their turnover). They will no longer fall within the definition of “designated employer” and are not required to comply with Chapter III of the Act relating to affirmative action.
BEE-measured entities (if the Bill is unchanged) will experience closer scrutiny in respect of the substance of their employment equity plans and reports.
The Bill also provides for extended scope of labour inspectors.
Designated employers will have to adopt a stricter approach in their efforts to secure transformation of the workforce. This may well lead to the delayed implementation of the criteria for an Empowering Supplier provided for in the B-BBEE Codes. These values depict a B-BBEE-compliant entity as a good-citizen South African entity, complying with all regulatory requirements of the country and meeting certain expectations based on QSE or generic status.
Management Control and Employment Equity
With regard to the Bill, amendments to the content of the Management and Control element of the B-BBEE scorecard, which includes the measuring of certain Employment Equity elements, could see a reshuffle in specific appointment levels based on the designated employer’s numerical and sectoral targets. Nonetheless, it will also have to keep track with the demographic requirements of Economically Active Population.
In the debate on future calculations of management control, it is speculated that the scorecard may be expanded to award varying points on occupational levels (especially for Charters) to reward the achievement of proposed sector targets.
This may prove challenging for the Construction and Financial Services Charters where the African economically active people are applied as measurement at various levels of management and skills development.
Certain sectors may have difficulty in recruiting suitably qualified people to achieve proposed sectoral targets. Regardless of the circumstances, further payroll expenses will be inevitable for designated employers.
In conclusion
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, if approved, will directly target designated employers as the driving force of future transformation in the South African economy.
About the Author: Corné Grundling is a Project Manager who joined SERR Synergy in June 2019 within the Pretoria B-BBEE Department. He has more than 16 years’ experience in Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment, both as former BEE analyst and technical signatory.
Sources:
Portfolio Committee on Employment & Labour – www.Bowmanslaw.com
Government Gazette No. 43535
(COGP) Government Gazette No. 36928
