Pretoria – Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has expressed concern on the low representation of people with disabilities in the workplace.
The representation of persons with disabilities decreased from two percent in 2014 to 1.7 percent in 2015, with males having the most representation than females.
Minister Mildred on Monday urged employers to respect the constitution and implement Employment Equity.
Addressing the media in Pretoria, after receiving the report from the Chairperson of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE), Tabea Kabinde, Minister Oliphant emphasised the need for companies to comply with the law.
Minister Oliphant said her department will give employers at least six months to rectify the situation before the might of the law takes its course.
“Companies not complying will be fined,” she said, adding that those employers who do not know how to implement the Employment Equity will be assisted or educated to comply.
The Minister warned that failure to comply or to implement will lead to companies or employers taken to court.
“We are going to monitor those employers not adhering to the law,” the Minister said.
The Minister also expressed concern on the slow pace of transformation in the country.
According to the 16th Commission on Employment Equity report released today, the representation of people with disabilities has gone down as compared to last year.
The decrease was recorded in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, catering, transport and community.
The report also indicate that whites are still recruited at a high rate in the top management positions.
White males make up a third of top management in the National Government.
“White people continue to receive preference over other race groups. Even when their contract of employment is terminated in one organisation, they are recruited back again at the same top management level in another organisation during the same period, which is an indication of opportunities afforded specifically to them at the expense of other race groups,” Minister Oliphant said.
The Employment Equity Act (No 55, 1998) aims to facilitate workplace transformation. It incorporates two elements: a) the elimination of unfair discrimination and b) the implementation of affirmative action and measures to enable equitable representation of employees from different race and gender groups in the workplace.
The CEE’s 16th annual report is based on the data submitted by compliant organisations in accordance with the annual reporting obligations in the EEA.
This data is a reflection of all the employers listed on the 2015 Employment Equity Public Register and is an indication of the rate of transformation in the country.
In 2015, 25 030 Employment Equity reports were submitted compared to 24 291 reports in 2014.
According to the Commission on Employment Equity, almost half of the reports (45.9%) were from employers in the Gauteng province representing 3.7 million employees followed by the Western Cape Province with 19.7% reports representing more than a million employees with 13.8% from KwaZulu-Natal.
From the Commission’s report, the public sector remains the biggest employer followed by the private sector.
Private sector accounts for 94.8% of the reports submitted and it can be regarded as the largest employer representing 5.3 million employees.
The Commission’s report also shows that there has been an increased representation of foreign nationals (5.4 percent) in the Educational Institutions, which even exceeds that of some designated groups at this level. – SAnews.gov.za
Launch of the Commission for Employment Equity Annual Report
