The Department of Employment and Labour’s Employment Equity (EE) Directorate is gearing itself for the implementation and enforcement of the new EE Act once the parliamentary processes are finalised by March 2022.
The Director: Employment Equity, Ntsoaki Mamashela said now that Parliament has resumed after recess – hopes that the processing of the EE bill will be expedited are high.
The EE Bill is expected to soon go to the National Council of Provinces for consideration.
The Amendment of the EE Act of 1998 is intended:
- To reduce the regulatory burden on small business
- Empower the Employment and Labour Minister to regulate sector specific EE numerical
- To promulgate section 53 of the EEA for the issuing of the EE Compliance Certificate.
Mamashela on 2 September addressed the start of a series of EE national workshops by the department to update on the EE amendments and EE sector targets. The initial workshop was targeting stakeholders in Limpopo Province.
“The expected introduction of five-year sector targets will mark the beginning of a clean slate. All current EE plans will fall away in 22 September 2022 and the new plans will have to be aligned with five-year targets. Self-regulation has not worked,” she said.
Mamashela said further sector engagements which started in 2019 on sector targets will continue. These have already been held with sectors such as mining, financial & business services, wholesale & retail, and construction. By June 30, 2021, the department had engaged with all 18 economic sectors and concluded an agreement with the financial and business services sector.
She added that the department was currently busy with the analysis of the written submissions in response to the proposed sector EE targets from the remaining 17 sectors with the view of conducting follow-up engagements in an attempt to reach consensus.
“It is envisaged that the sector engagements will be concluded by February 2022 with proposed targets,” she said.
The Department’s annual employment equity workshops are being held through Virtual Microsoft Teams in each of the nine provinces under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense“.
The workshops will run until 28 September 2021 between 10:00 and 13h00.
The programme of this year’s workshops is on:
- Respective provincial EE status;
- Update on EE Amendments and EE Sector targets;
- How to access copies of the EEA2 Online by completing EEA11 form, including 2021 EE reporting; and
- EE inspections and enforcement in the labour market.
The workshops are targeted at: employers and their employers’ organisations; human resources executives and practitioners; EE Forum members; assigned senior managers/transformation managers, academics; employees and trade unions; labour relations practitioners; and civil society organisations among others.
The schedule for the remaining planned virtual workshops is as follows:
- Free State – Thursday, 02 September 2021
- KwaZulu-Natal – Tuesday, 07 September 2021
- Eastern Cape – Wednesday, 08 September 2021
- Western Cape – Tuesday, 14 September 2021
- Gauteng – Wednesday, 16 September 2021
- Northern Cape – Tuesday, 21 September 2021
- North West – Wednesday, 22 September 2021
- Mpumalanga – Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Click here to view: Recording: Unpacking FEDHASA’s Updated Response To DoE&L’s Sector Target Proposal
