Issued by the Department of Labour
2 October 2000
Chairperson
Commissioners of the Commission for Employment Equity
Representatives of organised business and labour
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Today we have arrived at a very important point in the journey to achieve employment equity in South Africa. Later this morning, my Department will unveil the results of the analysis of the first employment equity reports that we have received from employers who employ more than 150 employees.
But before this happens, I would like to remind you all of the journey that we have travelled and I am afraid, warn you of the long journey that still lies ahead.
Our journey started in the bowels of the apartheid mine, factory and farm. From the labour bureau which when giving all black workers, passes - the 'dompas' - also gave them stamps. If your pass was stamped with a certain number (for example a '5', you were destined to the life of a mine worker, if it said '6' your future was in the hands of a farmer).
And thousands of workers spent hours in long queues desperate for a stamp that read: 10(1)(b). That meant you could stay and work in an urban centre and you could possibly begin the long struggle to have a job and career of your choice.
How quickly do we forget this history? Yet it continues to shape employment patterns today - as the results of our analysis will show you. And it continues to shape the cultural paradigm of our workplaces and I am afraid our society.
Just one month ago, the South African Human Rights Commission held a National Conference on Racism. It was as depressing as it was significant. In a bubble sometimes you can see a rainbow. That bubble has burst potentially threatening the foundation on which the notion of the rainbow nation is based.
From across the country and including in our workplaces such as farms, overwhelming evidence was presented that racism continues to exist. Let us be honest with ourselves. While the incident of painting a black farm worker with a silver paint, portraying our former president as a gorilla and dragging a worker behind a bakkie are barbaric and outrageous, racism in our society goes far beyond this.
As Pallo Jordan, ANC MP for Parliament said at the Conference on Racism: "The fact of the matter is that any system of racism provides those who are part of the privileged group with unearned rewards. If you were white in South Africa you were always first in the job queue. Sometimes you were the only one in the job queue. It is ridiculous to suggest that white and black South Africans are at the same starting line."
It is this situation that still confronts our country and our workplaces today. The participants at the Conference accepted the cultivation of a human rights culture guaranteeing human dignity and non-racialism as a key challenge for all South Africans. The Conference resolved, inter alia, that policies and measures aimed at reducing disparities in wealth, including land and tenure reform, access to capital, skills and training, be implemented.
In respect of the economic arena, government has developed a two-pronged response, namely black economic empowerment and employment equity to address the systemic racism that continues to exist. Black economic empowerment addresses the lack of meaningful black ownership in our country while employment equity addresses the lack of meaningful participation by blacks, women and disabled people as employees within enterprises.
These two government strategies need to talk to each other. I have read with interest the report of the Black Empowerment Commissions; my assumptions are a number of areas where there is considerable scope for interaction including in respect of skills development, job creation and small business promotion. We need to ensure that firms who want to tender for government goods and services show that they are responsive both in relation to black economic empowerment and employment equity.
But, the critical role that the Department of Labour has to play in addressing racism in our country and at our workplaces in particular is through our employment equity strategy. I should hasten to add that we do not regard addressing the position of women or people with disabilities with any less of a priority.
The reality is often that a workplace which is not sensitive to the issues of racism is simultaneously not sensitive to the issues of gender and disability. These employers continue to cling to the old South Africa, while we are on a journey to create a new united yet diverse nation and make our new nation work.
In 1998, the South African Parliament passed the Employment Equity Act. It did so to fulfil a Constitutional mandate to prohibit discrimination in the workplace and promote affirmative action. The Employment Equity Act was one of a number of statutes to eradicate the legacy of apartheid in our country and in our workplaces.
But, Parliament also passed the Employment Equity Act, as part of a number of laws, policies and programmes to get our economy working. As we have said many times, employment equity makes good business sense. This country cannot grow and develop when significant portion of our human resources are under-utilised.
Recently a paper at a NEDLAC seminar on South Africa's economic future, confirmed why employment equity is critical for economic growth. In the paper and resultant discussion it was argued that people's perceptions of one another are a critical determinant of economic behaviour. South Africa's history means that these perceptions are strongly influenced by race and these perceptions are then played out in a variety of ways that are not conducive to economic growth.
I can cite at least one example of this. At a recent conference looking at labour markets and employment, research was presented that the unemployed are much more likely to get a job through a contact or network than the open job market. This means in practice that managers from a particular race group or community are more likely to give jobs to their own friends or relatives rather than seeking the best possible person through an advert. This serves to perpetuate both low levels of representivity and productivity.
Two years after the passage of the Employment Equity Act, we are seeing the first results. Today we will be sharing with you what has been revealed and told to us in some 3 000 reports that we have received from employers who employ over 150 employers.
I will also be announcing a number of new 'measures' to assist employers who still have to report by 1 December this year. These measures reflect the fact that both you as employers and employees as well as us as the Department of Labour are on a steep learning curve during this initial part of our journey to employment equity.
We hope that we have learnt a number of lessons from the first round of reporting that will make reporting in the next rounds easier for you. We also hope that we have been responsive to your needs and to the problems that you raised. But more of this later.
Who reported: extent of compliance
Ladies and gentlemen, approximately 3000 employers reported. In terms of our estimates this represents about 60% of all employers who should have reported.
All those who reported are listed in an Employment Equity Registry which I have published today in the Government Gazette and am now launching. We will update this Registry on our website after every reporting cycle.
The Act deems the registry to be a public document and for a very good reason. It tells you who has reported and from that you are able to establish who has not reported. It tells all of us which employers are not even prepared to take that simple little step with us in our journey to employment equity.
I am disappointed with this level of compliance. How should we regard such employers? Particularly such employers who are not small - they all employ over 150 employees. I doubt whether any of them could claim ignorance of the law.
The Department has already written letters to all employers who are on our Unemployment Insurance database and threatened them with legal action if they do not report. And we will continue to follow up such non-compliance in accordance with the Act. As you know, large fines await them.
What was reported: The extent of employment equity
Let us now turn to the reports we received. What was reported? At this stage we are able to report back on the work force profiles as well as say something on the employment equity planning process.
We have analyzed the work force profiles in terms of race, gender and disability and per occupational level, occupational class, province and sector. We have used the SETA sectoral classifications to provide employers with relevant benchmarks, which can also be used for the purposes of the Skills Development Act.
The results are not good, especially in the senior management occupational categories. Nor has significant progress been made since we did a baseline survey two years ago.
Let me share with you a few of the key figures:
What does this tell us? It tells us that a significant proportion of large employers do not care about employment equity. It tells us that we have a significant number of companies in this country who do not want to make the journey to the future. It also tells us that in the absence of legislation, employers will not rectify inequities created by our history.
The high number of employers that failed to report by the deadline of 1 June 2000, shows that employers did not prepare adequately in advance to comply with this legislation.
I have not come to this conclusion lightly. I would have preferred to come to a different conclusion. But in coming to this conclusion, I also asked another question: are all the reports of poor quality?
And the answer I got from those who went through the reports was "NO". There are some excellent reports. There are some companies who have taken their responsibilities seriously in terms of their attempts to comply with employment equity reporting requirements.
Even more heartening has been the good faith and progress displayed by many companies as evidenced by their current workforce profiles. This is particularly inspiring when noted in industries in which the pursuit of employment equity has generally been cited as problematic, due to existing skills shortages.
This tells me that employment equity CAN WORK. That with the right commitment, with consultation and participation of employees, with investment in training and development, it is possible. It tells me that the Employment Equity Act is indeed needed.
We as the Department of Labour, did not expect miracles. We know that turning around the representivity of workplaces can't happen overnight. But we expected a commitment - we expected better reporting, more honest and open acknowledgement of barriers and better understanding of issues that face disabled people.
How are we going to respond to these results? Let me first quote you what our President said at the National Conference on Racism:
"There is a particular obligation on the white section of our population...voluntarily to recognise the reality of racism, not to propitiate any sense of guilt, but to make a contribution to the bright future of our country, which they legitimately expect"
Our results have shown us that it is still white managers who dominate decision making in the firms that reported. Let me start by supporting and elaborating on this call of the President.
Without basic worker rights, a stable and equitable work place, equal opportunities for all our people, remedies in place to address discrimination and unfair labour practices, neither of us would have a stable or prosperous economic future.
It is for this reason, that employment equity is the personal responsibility of all of us. Yes, it is not always easy. But it is the correct way to go for South African patriots.
I would therefore in the first instance, call on CEOs and senior managers to make a commitment or a renewed commitment to make employment equity work. Later on, the Director General will, on the basis of the best and worst practice that we have witnessed in the first reports, provide some further guidelines of our expectations in this regard.
In the second instance, I would like to call on the support of all employees. Our evidence shows us that employee participation has led to a more realistic appraisal of barriers and a more realistic setting of goals.
We are also beginning to deal with a number of fairly heated complaints from unions or workers on the one hand and human resource managers on the other hand, regarding worker involvement. Workers are complaining that they are not taken seriously while human resource managers complain that they can't get workers to be constructively involved.
This kind of conflict is not necessarily unexpected as part of the learning experience and if properly managed can yield dividends.
My call on employees is threefold:
In the third instance, the Department of Labour is recommitting itself to help those employers who require assistance while beginning to take action against those who willfully do not comply with the Act.
In addition to following up those who have not submitted reports as described above, we are in the process of identifying approximately 50 companies who have the worst record in terms of these reports and will target them for "Director General Reviews" sanctioned by the Act.
These reviews involve investigating in more detail, the employment equity policies and practices of a company and making certain recommendations. If these recommendations are not implemented, legal action can be taken against the company.
Reporting by smaller designated employers
1 December 2000 is the deadline for submission of reports by small designated employers, namely those employers who are employing less 150 employees and also those falling within the category as a result of their annual turnover.
I am hoping that we will see improved reporting during this round. Arising out of our experience of the first round and to assist all employers who are still to report, today, I would like to officially launch the following:
Firstly, a 086 number. This number, 0860 10 10 18, which will be in operation until the end of December will be there for employers and employees to use to ask any question and seek information about the Employment Equity Act, the planning and reporting procedures.
Secondly, we have developed a revised set of answers to frequently answered questions. These questions supplement our User Guide which was published last November. Both these documents are available here and will be available at our local offices and on our website.
Thirdly, we are publishing today in the Government Gazette a simplified reporting form for employers who employ less than 150 employees. It particularly makes the qualitative assessment section easier and quicker to answer. It also asks a few additional questions to help us analyse the reports. I should stress however that employers can choose which form they would like to complete, the original EEA2 or this modified EEA2A.
Fourthly, we are introducing web-enabled reporting. This means that you will be able to complete your reporting form on the e-mail and it will automatically go into our database. One of the advantages of web-enabled reporting is that the information will be captured more accurately and more speedily enabling the Department to publish the results more efficiently.
Following this meeting, the Department will be organising a number of provincial employment equity summits targeting small designated employers. These will be aimed at creating greater understanding on the employment equity planning and reporting process.
The full report on the findings of our analysis of the employment equity reports submitted to the Department will be available from our web-site: www.labour.gov.za as of today.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I hope you will gain from today's proceedings. As I have already stated, it marks an important stage in a journey towards the achievement of employment equity in the workplace.
I would have preferred that we would be further on this journey but I nevertheless call on all of you to join hands together in this journey and let us travel together to have a non-racial, non-sexist and non-discriminatory workplaces positioned to build and grow our economy.
Finally, this journey has been made possible by the contributions and assistance provided by USAID and Information Resources Group. And of course this would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the staff of the Department of Labour staff.
Thank you.