Drastic action is needed to ensure the transformation of the workplace as white males still occupy top and senior management positions, employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi says.
This is despite the department embarking on annual roadshows encouraging employers to comply with employment equity legislation.
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill of 2020, which is aimed at empowering Nxesi to introduce sector-specific employment equity targets and is before the National Assembly, does not seem to have rattled non-complying employers.
“It is clear that we remain a very unequal society in the upper echelons of our economy. This is unacceptable,” Nxesi told a virtual launch of the Commission for Employment Equity 2020/2021 report on Friday.
“This report is a wake-up call to [the] government. It’s evident that self-regulation by employers to achieve the objectives of this [employment equity] act has not worked. More aggressive strategies are required to reach its intended purpose, including reviewing the legislation.”
Until now, the government had no real targets and the Employment Equity Act required only “reasonable progress” in workplace transformation. The bill is intended to accelerate transformation by putting clear targets in place.
“If we don’t compel them, they are not going to move. If we come up with this amendment we are talking about, we are going to compel them. We must not be apologetic about that,” the minister said.
Top management
The report confirmed that little transformation had taken place in the upper echelons of the labour market since the adoption of equity legislation 23 years ago.
The report shows that in 2020 whites occupied 64.7% of top management positions, a slight drop from the 65.6% recorded in 2019, while black lagged at 15.8%, up from 15.2% of the previous year, with Indians at 10.6% (10.3% in 2019), and coloureds at 5.7% (5.6% in 2019).
White males held most of the top management positions, accounting for 51.6% last year, while their black counterparts were at 10.1%, Indians 7.3%, and coloureds at 3.5%.
Senior management positions were also dominated by whites at 52.5%, followed by blacks at 24.7%, Indians 11.6%, coloureds 8% and foreign nationals at 3.1%. In terms of gender, white males led with 34.7%, followed by blacks 15.1%, Indians 7.4%, and coloureds at 4.7%.
White people accounted for only 0.9% of the unskilled labour force, Indians for 0.7% and coloureds for 10.9%, while blacks accounted for 83.7%.
Intransigent employers
Blacks fared the best at middle-management level where they accounted for 46.7% of positions, followed by whites at 32.1%, coloureds 9.7%, Indians 9.1% and foreign nationals at 2.4%.
The minister said the tide has to be turned against intransigent employers. He urged parliament to “finalise deliberations on and enactment of the bill so that we are able to build an all-inclusive SA”.
Self-regulation by employers has clearly not worked, Commission for Employment Equity chair Tabea Kabinde said at the launch.
She said the amendment bill will be a game changer, and so will the issuing of compliance certificates. “That will stop non-complying employers from doing business with [the] government,” she said.
Thembinkosi Mkalipi, chief director of labour relations in the department of employment & labour, said the processing of the Employment Equity Amendment Bill by the house is at an “advanced stage”.
“We are very confident the bill will be finalised by parliament within a year, and we are crossing fingers the president will sign it into law next year,” Mkalipi said.
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