The Department of Labour has hit back at critics of proposed amendments to employment equity laws, arguing that the effect would be to increase the number of coloured people in the Western Cape workforce, not decrease it as claimed by trade union Solidarity.
Solidarity this week claimed that up to one million coloured workers would lose their jobs in the Western Cape if new laws were passed forcing employers to use national rather than provincial demographics to meet employment equity targets.
Solidarity said if Western Cape companies were to use national demographics, the coloured workforce would have to decrease by 80 percent in the province to meet national targets.
The amendment proposals are being debated at Nedlac by representatives of government, Business Unity South Africa (Busa), Cosatu and other unions.
But Thembinkosi Mkalipi, chief director of labour relations in the department, strongly denied Solidarity’s claims, saying the proposed changes “would not disadvantage coloureds or exclude any racial grouping”.
She said the proposals had been made because of widespread confusion in the labour market, with companies not knowing whether to consider national or provincial demographics.
The current law states that both demographics can be taken into consideration.
“If we take national demographics, we are not going to disadvantage the coloured community in the Western Cape because as it stands now, with both national and provincial demographics, coloureds are under-represented in top management.
“We are not looking at unskilled labour. We are looking at the four upper levels (directorships, senior, middle management and qualified skills technical labour).
“When we talk about employment equity and transformation, we look at upper levels, and if companies follow national demographics, this will result in more coloureds in the higher job levels,” Mkalipi said.
Cosatu, has dismissed Solidarity’s statement as “irresponsible propaganda”. Cosatu’s Patrick Craven said: “This scare was started by Solidarity, that small minority union that has not outlived the apartheid past… On the contrary, government agrees that ‘coloured’ workers are under-represented in the implementation of the Employment Equity Act and other legislation, and the proposed amendments are intended to rectify this.”
Cosatu said it was clear that Solidarity was acting “opportunistically … on the eve of the local government elections, to use a ‘swart gevaar’ tactic to instil fear among coloured workers and drive them into the arms of the DA”.
On talks at Nedlac, Mkalipi said parties would debate issues which might have unintended consequences in the future, “so that we do not sit with big problems in a few years’ time”.
Labour expert and Business Report columnist Terry Bell said he was confident that “sense will prevail and the laws will be appropriately amended”.
Andre Kriel, general secretary of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu), said: “The amendments are proposals which are still subject to negotiations at Nedlac. I am a member of the Cosatu task team for the labour law amendments and there is no way, being the general secretary of a union with thousands of coloured workers, that I can be part of a negotiating team which will effect a change in the law that will affect thousands of Sactwu workers negatively.” - Cape Times