/ 20 November 2003

Employment equity blitz coming

The Department of Labour will next week conduct a national blitz to target employers who have not reported their employment equity figures, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday in a written reply to a parliamentary question.

In reply to Democratic Alliance MP Charles Redcliffe who asked how many employers employing more than 150 workers had not submitted reports on progress in appointing the historically disadvantaged, the minister said the Employment Equity Registry System did not contain the exact number of designated employers who should report “but only those who have reported”.

The number of employers who had reported was 7 125, of which 2 761 were employers with 150 employees or more and 4 364 were those “with less than 150 employees”.

Employers who were found not to not be compliant with the Employment Equity Act were required to make an undertaking to comply “by a given date”.

“Those employers who failed to abide by the undertaking were issued with the compliance order. However, this year there will be a national blitz during the last week of November. This blitz will target those employers who did not report and those who faked the figures.” — I-Net Bridge