Employers and companies will have to meet a set of conditions before being issued with the employment equity (EE) Compliance Certificate as a prerequisite for access to contracts with State and any of its organs.

This is according to the Department of Employment and Labour's Deputy Director: Employment Equity Directorate, Masilo Lefika who added that the certificate will be applicable for a year from the date of issue and is one of the reasons for the amendment of the of section 53 of the EE Act.

In terms of proposed EE amendments, the criteria for non-designated employers (those employing 0-49 employees) – is to comply with the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or prove that they have been granted exemption (previous 12 months); and have no CCMA unfair discrimination award against employers (previous 12 months).

The criteria for designated employers (those employing 50 or more employees) will have to submit annual EE Report (EEA2 & EEA4 forms); comply with the NMW or prove that they have been granted exemption not to pay NMW (previous 12 months); comply with own Annual EE Targets towards the 5-year Sector EE Target; and have no CCMA unfair discrimination award against employers (previous 12 months).

Lefika said the intention is not to “bottleneck" employers.  “The five-year sector targets are not quotas, but we are flexible. We do not want a one size fits all solution," he said.

Lefika was speaking during the joint EE virtual workshops being held today for KwaZulu-Natal.

According to the proposed amendments the EE Compliance Certificate exemptions will be granted only when there are justifiable reasons including insufficient recruitment opportunities; Insufficient target individuals from the designated groups with the relevant qualifications, skills and experience; Insufficient promotion opportunities; Transfer of business; Merger/ Acquisitions; Impact on business economic circumstances, e.g. impact of COVID-19 pandemic on business. Employers will be subjected to strict audit before the certificate is issued, said Masilo.

The virtual EE workshops will run until 28 September 2021 and have already been held for the provinces of Limpopo and Free State. The workshops are held from 10:00-13:00.   

The programme of this year's workshops will be on:  

• Respective provincial EE status;
• Update on EE Amendments and EE Sector targets;
• How to access copies of the EEA2 Online by completing EEA11 form, including 2021 EE reporting;
• EE inspections and enforcement in the labour market.

The schedule of the remaining workshops is as follows:

• Eastern Cape – Wednesday, 08 September 2021
• Western Cape – Tuesday, 14 September 2021
• Gauteng – Wednesday, 16 September 2021  
• Northern Cape – Tuesday, 21 September 2021
• North West – Wednesday, 22 September 2021
• Mpumalanga – Tuesday, 28 September 2021

More details are available on our www.labour.gov.za. Meanwhile, the EE reporting season for both manual and online reporting opened on 01 September 2021. The manual EE reporting period closes on 01 October 2021 and the online period closes in January 2022.

Media enquiries:

Musa Zondi

Acting Departmental Spokesperson​

 musa.zondi@labour.gov.za

“The pandemic is still with us, so, make sure you continue washing or sanitising your hands frequently, wear your mask and observe social distance"

-ENDS-

Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour

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