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The Western Cape Inspection and Enforcement Unit ( IES ) concluded its Equity Road-Show in Mossel Bay this week (Tuesday,  20  August  2013). Last week saw the unit and members of the national Employment Equity (EE) division, conduct road shows geared at providing information on the various sectors which included agriculture, construction, wholesale & retail and catering, and finance and transport.

An outline of the programme given by the Business Unit Manager, David Esau, eluded that the purpose of the final leg of the road-show, similar to the previous ones, were to highlight what has been achieved and what has not been achieved.

In echoing the sentiments of last week, he said, “companies are not doing an analysis of their workforce, not consulting, not preparing and implementing proper EE plans. There are employers who are submitting reports without having legitimate equity plans in place.”

Furthermore, Esau explained that this year, 36-companies have been identified and reviewed. The findings have been that only five employers have complied over the past five- years and dealt with the recommendations as given by DoL.

Many companies are still doing a “paper-exercise”, by not complying but consistently submitting their equity submissions. Esau petitioned with businesses who needed clarity in improving the current situation, not to leave the session without having all their queries on equity addressed by the officials present on the day.

In the presentation given by Ivan Polson of IES Western Cape, reports and data on equity was analysed and submitted to the Minister. The report was broken down into various sectors in order to give an overview of how certain sectors were doing regarding equity.

An overview on how the country was performing in its equity breakdown in the various sectors was also discussed. The statistics proved that the Western Cape was lagging behind in terms of the national equity statistics, particularly in top management.

Furthermore, it can be seen nationally that no significant progress has been made in the last 15 years. He gave an explanation of the items required when drafting an EE plan for your company. According to Polson, the document must be a workable document and must be known to all affected.

Furthermore, a live demonstration was given of how to supply statistics online by Ntombozuko Dukuda. EE submission opens 1 September 2013 with two types of submissions being accepted, namely, manually and online. By the 1^st October 2013, the manual submissions should be submitted, EE online submissions closes 15 January 2014. Dukuda gave a physical demonstration of how to capture online EE reporting on the Department of Labour (DoL) website.

In 2012,  96% of employers reported online and 4% reported manually. This is a clear indication that the department is moving away from manual submissions. Some of the benefits of reporting online, include that errors are immediately picked up and can be quickly remedied. For overviews of the sectors, employers can go to the DoL website and scrutinise the public register.

The workshop was attended by Human Resource executive and practitioners, assigned senior EE managers / transformation managers, EE forum members and trade unions among others.The Equity Road Shows will continue on the other provinces, and will conclude on September 6 in Gauteng province.