The Employment Equity Amendment Act of 2022 has made quite an impression on the South African population over the last few months. From accusations against its intentions to rumours that it will replace BEE, much of the discourse has been confused and misconstrued. We would like to add more information so that you can form your own educated opinions.
A Short Summary Of Employment Equity
The Employment Equity Amendment Act as the name suggests is a collection of amendments to the Employment Equity Act of 1998. The EEA of 1998 recognised the “disparities in employment, occupation, and income within the national market” and fought to address it.
The amendments were devised in response to the slow adoption of EE legislation and low levels of transformed companies. A Director General review found that 6% of the 812 companies surveyed were considered transformed. This was verified by a review of workplace demographics from the last twenty years, leading many people to believe that “reasonable progress” had not been made.
How Employment Equity Will Now Be Applied
Now companies will have to meet their sector-specific targets or risk not receiving an EE compliance certificate. An aspect to watch, is that the annual EE compliance certificate is not guaranteed even if a designated employer does make sufficient progress in implementing their 5 year plan – the introduction of the system’s link to CCMA/Labour court adverse findings with respect to unfair discrimination, and to an employer having failed to pay minimum wage may render some employers at risk. There may be justifiable reasons for not being able to reach your targets, which will be covered in our next newsletter. Yet, if a company is unable to reach these targets they may experience consequences including
- No public sector tenders
- Potential pressure from JSE
- Possible exclusion from Management Control B-BBEE Points
For this reason Mantis Networks is developing an Employment Equity tool which will allow, once the targets are set, for data management, scenario planning and reporting in a format that is similar to our BEE calculator. Future versions of this product will be able to receive input from multiple payroll sources. The tool will of course integrate directly into Mantis BEE calculators. We envision this tool to allow companies to manage their BEE and EE in tandem, as they draw from the same pool of data.
This tool will soon be available in our portal, sign up to the waitlist to get early access to the Mantis Networks EE tool.
We are following this Employment Equity story as it develops and are collaborating with experts to rbing you the best advice.
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