In South Africa, a significant legal step towards addressing equality has come in the form of the newly enacted Employment Equity Amendment Act 2020 (EEA Act), signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 12 April 2023. The EEA Act amends the Employment Equity Act 1998, with the effective date of operation yet to be proclaimed but anticipated to be around September 2023. The amendments include numerous changes to the legislation governing workplace transformation and will impose stricter compliance measures on designated employers – those businesses with more than 50 employees.
A significant change in the EEA Act is the introduction of sector and sub-sector targets for economic sectors and geographical regions, requiring employers in these sectors to meet specific transformation goals. This is a departure from the previous approach that allowed employers to set their own targets in their employment equity plans. The sectoral targets will be published in the Government Gazette by the Minister of Employment and Labour after consultation with the affected sectors. Employers must align the numerical targets in their employment equity plans with the applicable sectoral targets set by the Minister. The Act requires designated employers to comply with these sectoral targets and assess and report against them.
The definition of designated employers has also been narrowed in the EEA Act, now excluding small businesses with less than fifty employees,...
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