Pretoria - The Department of Labour is to embark on an awareness campaign to help assist employers with their annual Employment Equity (EE) reports.
The nationwide, month-long campaign, which will be in the form of a roadshow, will kick-off on Tuesday in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces.
The purpose of the EE plan is to assist in eliminating unfair discrimination in the workplace and to achieve equitable representation of employees from designated groups by means of affirmative action measures.
According to the department, new amended regulations aimed at making reporting by employers short and easy will be demonstrated at the roadshows.
Department spokesperson Page Boikanyo said the new abridged method had resulted from numerous complaints by employers about the lengthy forms they always had to complete.
"While the new method entails simplified forms, the data and the integrity of the system have not been sacrificed.
"We would, however, also urge for the continued use of on-line report-filing by companies ahead of the 1 October deadline," Mr Boikanyo said.
The department had been encouraged by the fact that in 2008, more than half (over 4 000) of those who submitted their equity reports did so on-line.
"A lot of people, however, still do not realise that filling in the forms is not the only EE requirement as the real work is reporting on progress made at the workplace with regard to transformation.
"This entails consultation, audit and analysis as well as proper EE plan and the achievement of numerical goals," Mr Boikanyo said.
