Trade union, Solidarity says its legal team will soon serve court papers in its challenge of the Employment Equity Amendment Act, which President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law in April.
It says the law is unconstitutional, and grants draconian racial powers to the Labour and Employment Minister.
The Act requires that employers with more than 50 staff must submit employment equity plans, specifying how they will achieve the targets.
Employers are also then required to submit annual reports to the Department.
The head of Solidarity’s Research Institute, Connie Mulder says, “The section that worries us particularly is section 50- which gives the minister power to almost arbitrarily publish sectoral targets on provincial level- per employment level, like top management and senior management level. What this entails is you’ve got a minister from the Union Buildings that can suddenly decide what every single business in this country should look like; with severe penalties attached to it if you don’t comply. And this in our perspective is akin to a quota system- which is expressly prohibited. We do not want to move to a situation where we’re once again having quotas for certain races in the labour market.”
Solidarity says it will challenge the “unconstitutional” Employment Equity Amendment Act:
When signing the Bill into law the Presidency said the amendment seeks to advance transformations of South Africa’s workforce.
“The Amendment Bill seeks to advance transformation of South Africa’s workforce by setting equity targets for economic sectors and geographical regions and requiring enterprises to develop transformation plans. The Bill amends the Employment Equity Act of 1998 (Act No 55 of 1998) with new measures to promote diversity and equality in the workplace.”
President Ramaphosa signs Employments Equity Bill into law:
