Employment Equity Act, Annual Turnover Threshold – Revised January 2014

The changes to the Employment Equity Act have now been gazetted but there is no implementation date as yet.

The main changes are:

• The grounds of unfair discrimination are extended to include discrimination with regards to terms and conditions of employment between employees that perform the same or substantially the same work or work of equal value where the reason for the difference is because of a prohibited reason.
• The CCMA  has extended jurisdiction to arbitrate unfair discrimination disputes if the alleged unfair discrimination concerns sexual harassment or disputes concerning differential terms and conditions of employment (as opposed to only the Labour Court having jurisdiction).
• The fines for contraventions of the Act have increased substantially, ranging from R1.5million or 2% of the employer’s turnover to a maximum of R2.7million or 10% of the employer’s turnover, whichever is greater.
• All designated employers need to report to the Department of Labour on employment equity every year.
• The national demographics apply when assessing an employer’s compliance but the Minister may issue a regulation which may specify the circumstances under which the regional economically active population applies (Very grey area still).
• Most importantly – the thresholds for compliance are tripled. This affects companies with less than 50 employees. Some companies will now fall out of the net.

Please click below to view the Employment Equity Act,Schedule 4, Annual Turnover Threshold – Revised January 2014