What are some of the important principles contained in Government Gazette 52514 of 15 April 2025 (Gazette 1) dealing with employment equity?
_____________________________________
These important principles can be summarised as follows:
- in terms of s15A(1) of the Employment Equity Act (EEA), the Minister may identify national economic sectors for the purposes of the EEA, having regard to any relevant code in the Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities, published by Statistics SA
- item 1 of Gazette 1 identifies the 18 national economic sectors without any identification of sub-sectors – some indication of what should be taken into account in identifying the national economic sectors is to be found in EEA17
- in terms of s15A(2) of the EEA, the purpose of sectoral numerical targets is to ensure equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups at all occupational levels in the workplace – this provision has been incorporated into item 2 of Gazette 1
- in respect of the implementation of affirmative action, item 3 deals with the following important issues:
- 5-year sectoral numerical targets for the various population groups and gender from top management, senior management, professionally qualified, middle-management and skilled and technical is provided, as well as employees with disabilities – these targets are not intended to add up to 100%, as such targets exclude white males with no disabilities and foreign nationals (non-designated persons)
- the manner in which designated employers must take targets into account in applying affirmative action is defined with reference to the EEA, the General Administrative EE Regulations (General Administrative Regulations) and the Codes of Good Practice issued ito the EEA
- a designated employer will not incur penalties or any form of disadvantage if, in the assessment of compliance of affirmative action, it shows that there are reasonable grounds for non-compliance with the EE targets
