New Employment Equity Amendments and the impact on Foreign Nationals

Recently, the news got flooded with the announcement of the new proposed amendments to the employment Equity Act got gazetted. This was followed with controversy as some of the reactions were taking government to Court trying to overturn the amendments made.

This has been coming for quite a while, as these proposed changes were announced in June of 2020 (that crazy time where everyone had to adjust, work-from-home etc) and have now been implemented.

However… Implemented is debatable, as a recent Department of Labour Roadshow, revealed that the proposed amendments have been approved, but not yet signed into effect and thus not making it a legal requirement as yet.

Ok, so wait… Approved, signed but not implemented yet? Yes, confusing as it may seem, we at grok can assist you to make sense of this.

What does this then mean for you as an employer? It is as follows:

1.     You are still deemed as a designated employer, if you have less than 50 staff members, but your annual turnover exceeds the sector threshold, set out in the amended Schedule 4 of the Employment Equity Act, No. 55 of 1998, as part of the 2014 amendments.

2.     If you are designated, as per point 1, you need to comply with the EE Act, as outlined in Section 13 of the EE Act. This means:

a.     Section 16 – Consultation with employees/trade unions/employment equity forum or committee.

b.     Section 19 – Conduct an analysis on the company’s policies, practices, procedures, and the workforce, including numerical goals and targets.

c.      Section 20 – Develop and implement/maintain and Employment Equity Plan as stipulated in point a – i of Section 20.

d.     Section 21 – Report to the Director General on the progress made by implementing the EE Plan.

3.     There will be no option to deregister in 2023, based on the argument of non-compliance due to the new amendments (as these are not implemented as yet).

Thus, Employers still need to comply as per all the prior requirements, mentioned above. Meaning: Using the National (if the company operates on a national level) or Provincial EAP figures to inform the numerical goals and targets for the Analysis.

Another piece of uncertainty is the impact this will have on the foreign nationals, currently residing and or working in South Africa. With the Department of Home Affairs extending the deadline for the ZEP Permits to June 2024, people are still in employment and will possibly be for much longer, they are not considered when conducting an analysis. An employer, can’t dismiss an employee, only based on numerical goals and targets, which will pose a challenge.

All of the above considered, there is a lot of work to be done if you were under the impression that you will deregister your company in the 2023 Reporting period.

We can help with that.

Reach out to us at info@grokon.biz