Public hearings on Employment Equity to shift focus to KwaZulu-Natal

The Department of Labour's Employment Equity (EE) Directorate's national public hearings on the amendments to the EE Act and the draft EE regulations will next week shift focus to KwaZulu-Natal.

The department has published the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and the Draft Employment Equity Regulations in the Government Gazette in response to the slow pace of transformation in workplaces.

The department is using the public hearings to gather comments to the amendments.

On 09 October 2018, hearings will be held at the Golden Horse Casino Hotel in Pietermaritzburg, and on 10 October at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban.

Held under the theme: "Real transformation makes business sense," the public hearings focus on EE reporting advocacy and the amendments to EE legislation and Regulations, designed to fast-track the transformation of workplaces.

The key objectives of the EE amendments are:

• Introduction of provisions and regulatory requirements for the promulgation of Section 53 to ensure employers benefiting financially from State contracts comply with the EE Act;
• To bring alignment between definitions, policy provisions and the administration systems and enhancing of the collection of data for the National Minimum Wage Commission;
• Introduction of provisions in the EE Amendment Bill and regulations for the consultation and setting of numerically based sector targets across various occupational levels to ensure an equitably represented workforce; and
• To make reporting requirements easier for designated employers who are small employers.

The public hearings on Employment Equity amendments & Regulations started on 02 October in East London. Since then public hearings have been held in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.

The EE public hearings will be held from 08:30 to 14:00. The public hearings end on 26 October in Gauteng.

The EE 2018 Online reporting season is open. The online EE reporting closes on 15 January 2019.

(With inputs from South African Government press release)