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White males continue to dominate positions in senior and top management. This is 10 years after the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) was set up to look into transformation trends in the workplace.
White people account for 62.3% of senior and top management, while blacks account for only 20%. The CEE says there is a need for better representation of the country's demographics in the workplace. Government says the time for begging companies to come to the party is over. It is now pushing for an amended Employment Equity Act that will have bite as the current legislation does not.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana says some firms do not take transformation in the workplace seriously. Cabinet is now pondering over the amendments and the minister says it is now time to go for the jugular. Significant percentage fines on company turnover for non-compliance are on the cards.
"We want to shorten the process around fining people who do not comply with the law. We are sick and tired with the way people delay complying with Employment Equity, giving them 60 days and undertakings. We just want to fine people on the spot just like traffic officers do," says Mdladlana.
Recommended amendments
The CEE recommends that amendments that should be made to the Act includes improving monitoring, compliance and increase fines. It also suggests that firms should have Employment Equity Certificates when their Black Economic Empowerment scorecard is being considered by government in tender processes. It argues that the industry's claim that there is a lack of black skill is a fallacy.
Feedback from industry suggests that 60% of their professionally qualified staff are black, but that is not reflected in training and promotion levels. "We are very concerned that 10 years later or even 16 years after democracy we are still complaining about the lack of transformation in the work place. We are convinced that it is because of resistance as well as racist practices in the work place that make employment equity a difficult thing in the eyes of the employer," says acting CEE chairperson, Mpho Nkeli.
The CEE also found that wage disparities continued on the basis of race, with white people earning more than their black counterparts doing the same job.
White people account for 62.3% of senior and top management, while blacks account for only 20%. The CEE says there is a need for better representation of the country's demographics in the workplace. Government says the time for begging companies to come to the party is over. It is now pushing for an amended Employment Equity Act that will have bite as the current legislation does not.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana says some firms do not take transformation in the workplace seriously. Cabinet is now pondering over the amendments and the minister says it is now time to go for the jugular. Significant percentage fines on company turnover for non-compliance are on the cards.
"We want to shorten the process around fining people who do not comply with the law. We are sick and tired with the way people delay complying with Employment Equity, giving them 60 days and undertakings. We just want to fine people on the spot just like traffic officers do," says Mdladlana.
Recommended amendments
The CEE recommends that amendments that should be made to the Act includes improving monitoring, compliance and increase fines. It also suggests that firms should have Employment Equity Certificates when their Black Economic Empowerment scorecard is being considered by government in tender processes. It argues that the industry's claim that there is a lack of black skill is a fallacy.
Feedback from industry suggests that 60% of their professionally qualified staff are black, but that is not reflected in training and promotion levels. "We are very concerned that 10 years later or even 16 years after democracy we are still complaining about the lack of transformation in the work place. We are convinced that it is because of resistance as well as racist practices in the work place that make employment equity a difficult thing in the eyes of the employer," says acting CEE chairperson, Mpho Nkeli.
The CEE also found that wage disparities continued on the basis of race, with white people earning more than their black counterparts doing the same job.
we're now paying more rands for one dollar when previously we got dollars for one rand!Who was this PW.?Who voted him there?
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