{"id":572316,"date":"2022-03-29T13:52:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T11:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=572316"},"modified":"2022-03-29T13:52:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T11:52:29","slug":"companies-in-south-africa-to-face-more-reviews-to-show-they-are-transforming-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/572316\/companies-in-south-africa-to-face-more-reviews-to-show-they-are-transforming-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies in South Africa to face more reviews to show they are transforming: government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More companies can expect reviews in the coming year for failing to comply with employment equity legislation, says the Department of Employment and Labour&#8217;s chief director of statutory and advocacy services Fikiswa Bede.<\/p>\n<p>Bede said that as many as 60% of employers in the current financial year have failed to follow existing regulations, with a growing number of employers requesting settlements out of court &#8211; indicating that are budgeting for employment equity fines.<\/p>\n<p>The chief director said in terms of the Director-General (DG) review process, there was a 94% non-compliance with the Employment Equity Act. In the year under review a total of 860 DG reviews were conducted nationally.<\/p>\n<p>The most DG reviews were conducted in Kwa-Zulu-Natal (269); Gauteng Province (213) and the least were in the North West (10). &#8220;When one looks at the current DG review data the situation in regards to non-compliance with EE can only get worse,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reviews\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A director-general may conduct a review to determine whether an employer is complying with the Employment Equity Act of 1998. The review involves:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Requesting the employer to submit a current analysis or employment equity plan;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Requesting the employer to submit to the director-general any book, record, correspondence, document or information that could reasonably be relevant to the review of the employer\u2019s compliance with this Act;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Request a meeting with an employer to discuss its employment equity plan;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The implementation of its plan and any matters related to its compliance with this Act; and request a meeting with any employee or trade union consulted in terms of section 16, work forum or another person who may have information relevant to the review.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to Bede, some of the most common areas of non-compliance include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No proof of assignment of EE responsibility;<\/li>\n<li>EE managers are not provided with the required resources and budget;<\/li>\n<li>The attendance register does not indicating the constituencies represented by the committee members;<\/li>\n<li>An analysis conducted post the development of the EE Plan; barrier analysis does not match a true reflection of what is happening in the workplace<\/li>\n<li>EE plans do not project reasonable progress towards transformation in line with the goals and numerical targets set by the designated employers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Failure to comply with the director general&#8217;s recommendations\/request can lead to a referral for non-compliance to the Labour Court.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at an event on Tuesday (29 March), acting director-general of the department, Marsha Bronkhorst lamented the snail&#8217;s pace of transformation of workplaces. She said the department does not need to police and enforce compliance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Employers need to inculcate a culture of self-regulation. Unfortunately, Employment Equity has been one of the legislation that has been flouted with impunity since its inception.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She appealed to employers to transform as enforcement was costly and time-consuming.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/572250\/jobs-bloodbath-hits-south-africa-as-unemployment-climbs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jobs bloodbath hits South Africa as unemployment climbs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More companies can expect reviews in the coming year for failing to comply with employment equity (EE) legislation, says Department of Employment and Labour chief director Fikiswa Bede.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":94621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-572316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572322,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572316\/revisions\/572322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}