Employment equity reporting season underway – Department of Labour
The Department of Labour is reminding employers to submit in earnest their employment equity (EE) plan reports on time to avoid penalties.
Department of Labour Employment Equity Directorate, Senior Practitioner Robert Dzhombere cautioned that employers that miss the deadlines should not bother to submit their reports.
Failure by an employer to submit an EE plan report is a criminal act punishable by law.
Dzhombere was speaking today during the EE workshop under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense held at The Lakes Hotel & Conference Centre in Benoni, Ekurhuleni.
The workshop is part of the department’s advocacy to create awareness on compliance with the Employment Equity Act, publicise and help prepare the employers with the requirements needed to be used when submitting their online 2017 EE reports to the department.
Dzhombere said while manual reporting was still acceptable, he however, encouraged employers to submit online, as manual documents are susceptible to a myriad of mistakes and most were of poor quality. He encouraged employers to use online reporting as the system is dynamic and allows for a piecemeal filling of details.
Since the reporting season opened on September 1, Dzhombere said 500 employers have already accessed the system and 75 have already reported successfully.
During the 2014 financial year 24 291 employers submitted their EE plan reports and 199 of those were manual; in 2015 financial year 25 030 employers submitted their EE reports and 63 of those were manual. In 2016, 26 255 employers reported on their EE plans and 180 did so manually.
Department of Labour EE Directorate, Deputy Director Niresh Singh emphasised that during the development of EE plans proper consultations were critical to ensure the development of credible plans.
This year’s Department of Labour workshops were focused on: publicising the Amended Code of Good Practice on the Preparation and Implementation of the EE plans; encourage employers to submit EE reports online, publicise the 17th CEE Annual Report and the 2016 EE Public Register, and to present current CCMA cases on Employment Equity Act.
The national workshops started on 11 July 2017 and will end in Gauteng Province this Friday.
The last two remaining Gauteng Province workshops are planned as follows:
Vaal (08 September) at Lord’s Signature Hotel, 53 Raymond Street � Risiville in Vereeniging for all stakeholders.
Ekurhuleni (08 September) at Emperors Palace, 64 Jones Road, Kempton Park targeting only municipalities.
Workshops have been held in Rustenburg, Nelspruit, Thohoyandou, Polokwane, Bloemfontein, Richards Bay, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, George, and Pretoria.
The workshops are targeting: human resources executives and practitioners; EE Forum members; assigned senior EE managers/transformation managers; academics and trade unions among others.
The EE Online and Manual reporting season opened on 01 September 2017. The manual reporting closes on 01 October 2017, and the online reporting season closes in January 2018.
Source: Government of South Africa