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The trade union Solidarity has requested the Department of Labour to conduct a review of the current affirmative action measures taken by the Department of Correctional Services. The request was made because the DCS has failed to adhere to a Labour Court order of 6 February 2014 as well as the recent Labour Appeal Court judgment dated 10 April 2015, both of which directed the DCS to take into consideration the regional demographics when setting equity targets.

“We have also informed the Department of Labour that the DCS employment equity plan came to an end during December of 2014 and that it was unilaterally and without consultation extended by the National Commissioner till end of February, which is not in accordance with the law; yet to this date no plan that is in line with the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court judgments has been approved and/or adopted,” says Dirk Groenewald, head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices.

In its request, the trade union has indicated to the Department of Labour that despite the fact that the DCS does not have an approved plan, the Departments for Human Resources within the DCS have been provided with equity guidelines, yet again only based on the national demographics targets, which is not in line with the law and/or the Court judgments.

“One is left in utter amazement as to the DCS’ blatant disregard of the law and the Courts.  Thousands of people are discriminated against on a daily basis due to the application of national demographic equity targets within regions; nonetheless, the Department persists. The DCS has failed to respond to any of our correspondence and/or requests regarding this issue and we have thus been left with no alternative than to request the Department of Labour to intervene, and should it fail to do so, we will approach the court yet again.”

Issued by Solidarity