Employment Equity – Miscellaneous Matters
The Employment Equity authorities are currently engaging the public in roadshows around the country. Their schedule is included in the annexure to this Newsletter, and they have invited PAGSA members to attend. Despite their busy schedule, they have assisted the PAGSA by updating us on progress and clarifying some areas of the Employment Equity requirements that are not clear. Employment Equity Amendment Bill -Status
This long-running amendment Bill was issued as a draft Bill in Gazette No. 41922 on 21 September 2018. The PAGSA commented on the proposed changes at that stage, and again when more changes were made to the Bill over the years, the latest of which was published in December 2021. The final Bill has now been approved by the National Council of Provinces and the National Assembly on 17 May 2022 but must still be promulgated (signed by the State President) and given an effective date before its requirements can be implemented. My understanding is that before an effective date can be announced, the new sectoral targets (see the next section) that have been under discussion for more than a year must be finalised (there are 18 financial sectors and only one of them had been finalised by September 2021). It stands to reason that the portion of the Bill that provides for sectoral targets cannot be implemented until the sectoral targets are issued in a Gazette that allows 30 days for comments and once finalised, are then published in a regulation. I assume that parts of the EEA2 will be revised and published for comments as part of the same process. There is no indication of when these processes will be completed but it is obvious that they will take some time. In my opinion, the most practical time to make these changes effective is from the start of October, the first day of the ‘Equity Year’ (the 12-month period that employers report on every year) for most employers, but there is no certainty on this. This would mean that the earliest starting date would be 1 October 2023. However, another factor is that there is a possibilty that the ‘Equity Year’ dates are revised (see the PAGSA proposal in the last section of this Newsflash). If our proposal is accepted and the ‘Equity Year’ dates are standardised, it would then make sense to align the effective date of the amendments with the starting date of the new ‘Equity Year’ as specified. Lastly, the PAGSA has made the Equity authorities aware that we need sufficient time in which to change payroll systems and to implement the changes at clients. Employment Equity Amendment Bill -Proposed Changes
Refer to PAGSA Newsflash 2019-55 for the details of the draft Bill at that stage, but there are two proposed changes that are repeated here because they are important for payroll suppliers:
1.The definition of a ‘designated employer’
2.The introduction of sectoral numerical targets. Keep in mind that these changes are included in the final Employment Equity Amendment Bill, but that the Bill has not yet been promulgated and made effective. As matters stand, the current law must still be complied with. Change to the definition of a Designated Employer
All employers must comply with the ‘Unfair Discrimination’ requirements of Chapter II of the EE Act, but only ‘designated employers’ as defined by the EE Act must comply with the ‘Affirmative Action’ requirements of Chapter III. Note that employers that in future will no longer be designated once the changes are made effective and that then do not have to comply with the ‘Affirmative Action’ requirements of Chapter III of the Employment Equity Act, must still comply with the ‘Unfair Discrimination’ requirements of Chapter II of the Act. To obtain an Employment Equity Compliance Certificate for state tenders, all employers (both designated and not-designated) must comply with the National Minimum Wage Act and with the ‘Unfair Discrimination’ requirements of Chapter II of the Employment Equity Act. What are the Submission periods for the EEA2 and EEA4 Reports?