PODCAST | Employment equity targets — should business be worried?

Employment equity targets published by employment & labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth in April face a legal challenge.

In this edition of Business Law Focus, host Evan Pickworth interviews Baker McKenzie labour expert Johan Botes on what the changes may mean for business once implemented, key timelines and arguments for and against the changes.

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The Context

Business organisations and the DA are fighting the targets that 18 economic sectors must achieve in five years under threat of turnover fines as high as 10%.

The targets set the percentages of the four upper occupational levels — top management, senior management, professionally qualified or middle management, and skilled technical or junior management — which must be occupied by designated groups, namely historically disadvantaged groups of people based on race, gender and disability.

Designated employers with 50 or more employees, including organs of state regardless of the number of employees, are required to immediately review and align their employment equity plans with these five-year sector-specific employment equity targets to ensure equitable representation of suitably qualified individuals from designated groups across all occupational levels.

Employers with fewer than 50 employees, however, will no longer be required to prepare employment equity plans and submit annual employment equity reports.

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