Draft Code Of Good Practice on the Preparation and Implementation of Employment Equity Plans

23 Nov 2016

On 30 September 2016 the Department of Labour published a draft Code of Good Practice on the Preparation and Implementation of Employment Equity Plans (“Code”) for public comment. Written comments should be submitted within 30 days of publication of the notice (i.e. before no later than 30 October 2016).

Once the Draft Code has been completed, the existing Code of Good practice set out in the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, will be supplemented in its entirety. A summary of the Draft Code is set out below:

Objective

• The objective of the Code is to provide guidelines of good practice, in terms of the requirements of the Employment Equity Act no 55 1998 (“EEA”), for the preparation and implementation of employment equity plans.

Scope

• This Code is applicable to all employers that are regarded as designated employers in terms of the EEA.

Structure of the EE Plan

• The plan may be a separate document or a component of a broader document such as a business plan.

• The plan may closely follow the sections of the EEA and the relevant items of the Code, or may be organised differently, so long as the statutory requirements set out in Section 20 of the EEA are reflected in the plan.

• The plan should be accessible and structured in such a way that it is easy to understand.

Process for constructing a EE Plan

The process of developing a plan has three sequential phases: preparation, development, and reporting.

Preparation should include –

• Appointing an initiator to steer the process, including the assignment of one or more senior managers;
• Communication, awareness and consultation;
• Conducting an analysis in accordance with EEA12 of the Employment Equity Regulations of 2014.

The development phase should include the employer consulting and attempting to reach consensus on the development of the EE Plan (EEA13) by taking the following into account:

• Analysis report (EEA12);
• Determining the duration of the EE Plan;
• Determining the annual objectives of the EE Plan;
• Corrective measures formulated, including goals and targets;
• Time frames established;
• The EE Plan drawn up in terms of section 20 of the Act;
• Resources identified and allocated for the implementation of the EE Plan;
• The EE Plan communicated.

Reporting requires:

• A designated employer to submit their employment equity report to the Department of Labour annually on the first working day of October or by a prescribed date for online reporting;
• The employer must consult with its employees prior to submitting EE reports to the Department of Labour;
• The EE Report must be used as a monitoring and evaluation tool to inform future implementation strategies and the preparation of successive plans;
• EE Reports must reflect the progress made against the employer’s EE Plan;
• EE Reports must be completed by employers using the EEA2 and EEA4 form contained in the regulations; and
• Public companies must include their workforce profile in their financial report using the EEA10 form format contained in the regulations.

A more detailed analysis of the code can be found on the Department of Labour’s

Website: http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/legislation/codes-of-good-ractise/employment-equity/code-of-good-practice-on-employment-equity-plans

It is important that employer’s accurately prepare EE Plans as the failure to do so may result in the imposition of significant fines in terms of the provisions of the EEA.

(This article is provided for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. For more information on the topic, please contact the author/s or the relevant provider.)