Are your Employment Equity (EE) policies, procedures, and practices legally compliant?

By: Ivan Isrealstam.

Ivan Isrealstam is senior consultant at The Labour Law Group.

E-mail: labour@global.co.za

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1. Introduction

In last month’s article I pointed out that far too many employers have become complacent about the implementation of the Employment Equity Act (EEA) and that it is of vital importance for business to be able to establish whether or not they are on track in terms of complying with the law.

In this article we begin to examine the question about

whether the employer’s employment equity policies,

procedures, practices and targets are workable, realistic and compliant with the far reaching requirements of the EEA?"

2. Checklist to determine the degree of compliance and effectiveness of EE policies, procedures, and practices

Q. Does your company have clearly codified policies and procedures on the following?

>> Core EE policy and rationale

>> Organisational culture

>> Basic principles of EE implementation

>> Inclusivity

>> The desired objective of the company’s EE policy

>> Conduct of EE audit

>> Employment Equity plan

>> Employment Equity report

>> Information sharing

>> What is the company’s stance on direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation, and harassment?

>> Instructions on pressure to discriminate in employment practices

>> Strategic HR planning – workforce composition

>> Recruitment policies, procedures, and practices

>> Treatment of applicants; short-listing; interviewing and selection; selection criteria, and tests

>> Promotion, transfers, and layoffs

>> Training and development

>> Communication and language training

>> Career pathing, and mentoring

>> Performance appraisal

>> Discipline, dismissal, and redundancy

>> Retention measures

>> Employment conditions

>> Social responsibility

>> Disabled employees

>> HIV / AIDS in the workplace

>> Grievance and disputes handling

If these policies and procedures are not in place, or have not been audited for compliance and effectiveness by a policy expert with EE expertise your company can be heading for a hiding to nowhere!

3. Conclusion

Have all managers, employee committee members/trade union representatives and employees been trained in the content and meaning of these policies?

Do these policies form a rational and firm foundation for the

development of EE targets and EE plans?

If the answer to any of these questions is "No" then there are

issues for your company to address in order to ensure compliance with the requirements of the EEA, and/or in order to ensure effective practical implementation of the EE process.