Minister waves the big stick on worker equity
May 16, 2008
By Donwald Pressly
Cape Town - The department of labour intended to double inspections of JSE-listed firms for "substantive compliance" with the country's employment equity legislation, labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana said yesterday.
He warned that the carrot was not working and said "the stick has to come out".
The minister said his labour department inspectorate had received an injection of nearly R700 million this year and the department would increase the number of inspections on firms in all provinces to ensure they complied with employment equity legislation. This was to expand black presence in the workplace at all levels.
Mdladlana said earlier this year that while he was pleased with the compliance of steel firm Exxaro and retail firm Verimark, he wanted to ensure that the big guns implemented the law.
"Many of these firms participate in the global economy. It is important that we are not found with our pants down with the International Labour Organisation," he said, noting these big firms represented South Africa, which had a human rights constitution.
Among large firms under inspection were Bidvest, Woolworths, Anglo Platinum, Nedbank and Investec.
"We intend to similarly improve the competency levels of our inspectors for better enforcement of our laws," the minister said.
The department is taking an increasingly tough stance on companies just as recent surveys show employment equity and affirmative action in general are viewed less seriously by business. A recent Grant Thornton report notes that less than 60 percent of firms felt black empowerment was an important issue in winning new business. This was down from 70 percent last year.
However, a recent parliamentary labour portfolio committee report on workplace discrimination argued that more mechanisms were required to ensure greater compliance with employment equity legislation. The committee report said that firms that saw enforcement measures and non-compliance fines just as part of cost structures, should be discouraged.
Although the latest employment equity report is not available, Mdladlana felt that the overall employment equity picture was bleak. Ten years ago the Employment Equity Act was promulgated. Now research by the University of the Witwatersrand said the hierarchy of the national labour market "is still very racialised", and occupations at the lower-end were almost exclusively filled by black people and African women.
The Human Sciences Research Council had come back to the government with their findings on the "non-appearance" of black people who were qualified to take up skilled jobs "in a country were the majority is black". This the minister described as "startling".
The council had found "very high rates of growth in the supply of Africans and females".
In contrast, opposition parties argued that affirmative action might be more onerous than useful. Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald asked why white youths who had a disadvantaged background should not be considered for affirmative action.
Responding to a jibe from Les Labuschagne, an MP for the DA, who asked if he knew about poverty, the minister said he had not learnt about poverty in a book. He had slept hungry and lived in a household where his father earned R18 a week. "I still view myself as a worker."
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