The Department of Employment and Labour’s Employment Equity unit has raised a concerned with the North West province’s inability to reach the required percentage in hiring person with disabilities

The Economic Active Population report (EAP) of the North West province has revealed that the province is lacking behind in terms of hiring persons with disabilities. This was said at the joint Department of Employment and Labour, and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) 2022 Employment Equity workshop held in Mafikeng and Rustenburg.

According to the Assistant Director: Policy Development, Innocent Makwarela the 2019-2022 statistics from the reports received from the province indicate that the province is still sitting below 1% of the required 2%. “this is a worrying factor because the Cabinet has taken a decision that we should reach at least a minimum of 2% in hiring persons with disabilities. The picture portrayed by the province’s report indicates that they employers in the province are not doing enough and this should be corrected urgently” said Makwarela.

Between 2019 and 2021, the province has dropped from 0.9% to 0.7% in terms of employment of persons with disabilities.

He further raised concerns that the province also has a high number of foreign nationals who are employed in all levels, even though these positions are not part of the scarce skills. “the percentage of the foreign nationals employed at lower levels in these province is at 11.7 as per the 2021 report which is higher than that of the Whites, Indians and Coloured combined who are at 5.9% and this is a worrying factor and part of the objectives of conducting these workshops is to get an understanding from the employers as to why this is the case”. said Makwarela.

According to Makwarela, though these reports portray the province as not doing well on a number of issues, there are other employers who are not submitting their reports and these has a negative impact on the overall report of the province. “We have also noticed that some of the employers do not submit at all while those who have been submitting have now stopped. For example, with regard to the provincial government the stats indicate that in 2019 and 2020, all 13 Department submitted, however in 2021, the number of Department dropped to 12 with only 10 submitting and 2 not submitting” said Makwarela.

The same applied to municipalities whereby in 2019, 13 out of 22 submitted with 9 not submitting and the number increased to 11 and 10 respectively in 2020 and 2021.

The objective of these roadshows is to create awareness on compliance with the Employment Equity (EE) Act, share the most current information on what happens in the workplaces on equity and related matters, share information on EE disputes and help prepare employers to submit fully and accurate EE reports online to the Department.

The workshops programme covered the Code of Good practice on the prevention and elimination of harassment in the workplace where the Deputy Director: Policy Development, Niresh Singh stressed that employers should have relevant policies in place to address this cases as failure to do so will render them liable.

While Foster Maluleke, Senior Commissioner from the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) presented on the case law on types of harassment where he mainly dealt with the jurisdiction of the CCMA in handling the unfair discrimination on the basis of harassment including sexual harassment. The presentation further dealt with remedies available for victims of unfair discrimination in the workplace and the dispute resolution path at Labour Court including the Labour Appeal Court and the CCMA.

These workshops targets Employers or Heads of organisations, Academics, Assigned Senior Managers, Consultative forum members, Human Resource Practitioners, Trade Unions representatives and employees

The next EE Roadshows will take place as follows:

Limpopo

Thohoyandou (23 August 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Polokwane (24 August 2022) – Park Inn Hotel, Dorp Street

Free State

Welkom (23 August 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Bloemfontein (24 August 2022) – Summerwood Estate & Country, 8 Mimosa Park, Mimosa Park Small

Mpumalanga

Witbank (Emalahleni) – (29 August 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

KwaZulu-Natal

Richards Bay (30 August 2022) – Imvubu Lodge, Krewelkring &, Hibberd Drive, Meer En See

Pietermaritzburg (31 August 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Durban (01 September 2022) – Olive Convention Centre, 81 Somtseu Road, North Beach

Eastern Cape

Gqeberha (30 August 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

East London (31 August 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Western Cape

George (06 September 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Cape Town (07 September 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Gauteng

Pretoria (13 September 2022) – RH Hotel, Corner Steve Biko Road and, Trevenna Street, Sunnyside

Johannesburg (14 September 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

Vaal (15 September 2022) – (venue to be confirmed)

The national workshops will be held from 10:00 to 13:00 and members of the media are invited.

More information on EE is obtainable from the Department website www.labour.gov.za including updates on the schedule for venues.

Source: Government of South Africa