Inspectors from South Africa’s Department of Labour carried out “blitzes” in the Free State province this week but the vast majority of workplaces targeted were found to be compliant with the country’s employment equity laws, a spokesperson for Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Mokgadi Pela said initial outcomes of the ongoing workplace inspections in the Free State showed that some employers in the financial-services sector have been caught off guard, “while a big majority of others received a thumbs-up”.
On the first two days of their five-day blitz on banking institutions, accounting firms and post offices, which started on Monday, department inspectors assessing compliance with employment equity (EE) laws issued various warnings.
Pela said the crackdown was “mainly targeting” designated employers with 50 or more workers, as well as those with an annual turnover of R2-million in the financial sector.
On Monday alone, the inspectors searched 48 institutions in 11 towns, of which 35 were found to be compliant with the provisions of the law, including submissions of EE reports of last year, with copies readily available at workplaces.
“Their workplaces were also found to have the required representative EE consultative forums, which keep minutes, while levels of awareness and understanding of EE matters were also high.
“This, however, was not the case with 13 employers where non-compliance varied from failure to adequately display or produce reports upon request by inspectors, as well as general lack of employee access to information.
“The culprits were issued with 21-day written undertakings to comply or risk being fined or worse still, being dragged to court. The inspections precede the start of the submission period of the employment equity reports by the employers between September 1 and October 2.” — I-Net Bridge