The Department of Employment and Labour are eagerly awaiting President Ramaphosa's signature on a bill that would see amendments made to the Employment Equity (EE) Act of 1998.
Once the bill is signed it will set out laws businesses will need to follow if they want to do business with the South African government.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, 2020 was passed in parliament during April this year and now awaits the assenting and signing into law by the President. It is expected that this will take place between September 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
Department of Employment and Labour Thembinkosi Mkalipi says the amendments will seek to empower the labour minister to regulate the compliance criteria to issue EE Compliance Certificates to businesses.
They explained that organisations that want to do business with the State will need to be in good standing when it comes to compliance with the EE act. However, they cautioned that businesses that do not necessarily do business directly with the State will have to comply with the law.
Mkalipi said, “The implication for employers is that if you have an EE plan in place it will be affected by the setting of targets and you will have to revisit your targets.”
They revealed that the department will launch a new EE online assessment system to monitor the implementation of these sector targets. The system will also allow employers to report their planned targets to the department and the strategies they will use to achieve these targets.
“The system will accept in good faith all the information supplied. The department will through the inspectorate visit workplaces to verify if information submitted is genuine,” explied Mkalipi.
The labour department is set to publish the list of sector targets for public comment in the coming weeks.
