Business is effectively boycotting the reporting of employment equity, according to the Employment Equity 2002 report, which tries to capture a picture of black workplace advancement for the previous year.
Only 2 369 companies reported their progress — a tiny fraction of eligible companies — yielding a report that covers fewer than one in 10 workers.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana slated business. “[The report] shows very little interest amongst employers in employment equity.” He attributed this to “a resistance to participate in any related state-driven transformation initiative” — one of the strongest statements against business by a Cabinet minister in recent times, though he did note “honourable exceptions”.
Business has argued in the past that the reporting requirements are onerous. The government has promised amendments later this year to ease the bureaucratic burden.
Despite its shaky statistical basis, the report can still be used to track efforts to deracialise workplaces, says Mdladlana. What it shows is a South African workplace that can still be likened to an Irish coffee: white on top and mostly black below, though the layer of cream is getting thinner.
White males feared employment equity most — they are the only group not designated for preferential treatment — but these concerns have been misplaced, especially at the top of the pile, according to the figures in the report. Whites still hold three of four top management positions and four of five senior management positions.
A gender snapshot presents an even more skewed picture. Women occupy fewer than one in five top boardroom chairs. “The most common barriers identified included the working environment; succession and experience planning; training and development; performance management; lack of skills; low [white staff] turnover; [and the] high mobility of people from designated groups once appointed,” according to the report.
It also noted that companies had often not put any plans in place to overcome the problems. The professions are changing faster, with blacks making up 65% of total employment.
At the crucial level of skilled technical, junior management and supervisory levels, change is happening much more quickly, with black workers in a slight majority. This group of employees is an economic growth driver, because this is the area where a dearth of skills is choking new investment.
The Irish coffee is still darkest at the bottom of the pile in the semi-skilled and unskilled categories — an apartheid legacy still constraining the country after nine years. Here blacks still comprise more than seven in 10 employees, a key factor
in explaining wealth disparities since most black workers are still employed in the lowest-paying jobs.
The report is likely to prompt the government to put more heat on business to get serious about equity. One of its findings is that “the affirmative action measures reported are very generic … and this creates the impression that no real affirmative action will take place”.