Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin, 13 September 2021
Norman Mampane
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Taking COSATU Today Forward Special Bulletin
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
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Monday, 13 September 2021
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Contents
o Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
Ø Employment and Labour urges employers to submit employment equity reports
o South Africa
- COSATU condemns the National Assembly's failure to pass the Employment Equity Amendment Bill
o International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- Remembering September 13 2006: Police Brutality Against Trade Unionists
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics
Employment and Labour urges employers to submit employment equity reports
8 Sep 2021
Department urges employers to submit employment equity reports on time
Employers need to be diligent and punctual in their report submission of employment equity (EE) plans, said Department of Employment and Labour Senior Practitioner for EE, Robert Dzhombere.
According to Dzhombere the department has updated its online reporting platform to ensure that stakeholders report successfully and avoid recurring mistakes.
Dzhombere was addressing the Employment Equity Directorate and Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) branch joint EE virtual workshops being held nationally. The latest workshop was held today for the Eastern Cape stakeholders.
The annual employment equity workshops are held under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense”.
Dzhombere reminded employers that the reporting season opened on 01 September 2021 with manual reporting closing on 01 October 2021 and online reporting on 15 January 2022.
“The Employment Equity Act 14 (EEA 14) form must be completed fully and signed by the Chief Executive/Accounting officer and accompanied by the relevant supporting documents. Employers who are no longer designated and do not want to report voluntarily may submit the EEA14 form with the latest Audited Financial Statement,” he said.
The Employment Equity Act exist to achieve equity in the workplace by – promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through the elimination of unfair discrimination and implementation of affirmative action measures to redress the disadvantages in employment experienced by designated groups in order to ensure their equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce.
The virtual EE workshops will run until 28 September 2021 and have already been held in Limpopo and Free State Provinces. The workshops are held from 10:00-13:00.
The programme of this year’s workshops is on:
· Respective provincial EE status;
· Update on EE Amendments and EE Sector targets;
· How to access copies of the EEA2 Online by completing EEA11 form, including 2021 EE reporting; and
· EE inspections and enforcement in the labour market.
The schedule of the remaining workshops is as follows:
· Western Cape – Tuesday, 14 September 2021
· Gauteng – Thursday, 16 September 2021
· Northern Cape – Tuesday, 21 September 2021
· North West – Wednesday, 22 September 2021
· Mpumalanga – Tuesday, 28 September 2021
Media enquiries:
Musa Zondi: Acting Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 067 426 4190
E-mail: musa....@labour.gov.za(link
sends e-mail)
Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour
South Africa
COSATU condemns the National Assembly's failure to pass the Employment Equity Amendment Bill
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 13 September 2021
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) condemns the pathetic failure of the National Assembly (NA) to quorate and pass the long-delayed and progressive Employment Equity Amendment Bill.
This is an indictment on all political parties and their leadership in the National Assembly. The ANC on its own can provide the necessary quorum for the National Assembly to vote and adopt legislation. This reflects weak leadership and ill-discipline amongst the ANC Caucus in the NA.
The deliberate boycott and walkout by some Democratic Alliance Members of Parliament (MPs) and a few other little parties is testimony to their opposition to transforming South Africa and protecting the rights of women, Africans, Coloureds, and persons with disabilities who continue to face discrimination at their workplaces.
The leadership of the National Assembly needs to get its house in order, to urgently reconvene the NA and ensure that Members of Parliament do what they are paid to do by workers, e.g., attend sittings and vote on legislation that will improve their lives.
Parliament must apply the principle of no work, no pay for those MPs who failed to attend the sitting of the NA. The ANC needs to issue final written warnings to its MPs, including Ministers, who are too self-indulgent to bother to perform their Parliamentary work.
Those beyond redemption should simply be replaced with those who will take the work of Parliament more seriously.
COSATU’s support for the Employment Equity Amendment Bill is based upon the following provisions. The Bill provides badly needed interventions to strengthen the government’s ability to hold employers accountable for their role and failures to adhere to the Employment Equity Act. Key progressive provisions in the Bill include:
- Requiring employers in their EE Annual Reports to provide confirmation that they have paid all their workers at or above the National Minimum Wage.
- Expanding the definition of disability to include intellectual and sensory, a long-overdue correction.
- Empowering the Minister to set economic sectoral, sub-sectoral, regional, sub-regional, and occupation-specific targets; enabling more precise targets for sectors, occupations, and regions that are notorious for their failures to reflect South Africa’s demographics.
- Allowing for regional and sub-regional variations, critical given the diversity of South Africa’s population found in different provinces, etc.
- Requiring employers to consult trade unions on employment equity targets, helping to foster a more inclusive approach to meeting targets and supporting collective bargaining.
- Empowering labour inspectors to inspect and ensure compliance with the EE Act.
- Empowering the Minister to issue compliance certificates to employers in good standing with the EE Act and to require such certificates for companies applying for government contracts.
- This provision is a welcome step forward requiring employers doing business with the state to follow labour laws and acting in a way that supports good labour practices. Workers’ hard-earned taxes should not be used to reward abusive employers.
Parliament should not heed the usual prophets of doom and snake oil salesman who believe that treating workers like glorified slaves is the way to growing the economy.
Workers treated with respect paid a living wage and who’s rights are respected, have been shown by countless research to be the most motivated thus contributing to a more productive workplace and economy.
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
Remembering September 13 2006: Police Brutality Against Trade Unionists
13 September 2012
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) joins fellow trade unionists in Zimbabwe to remember the brutal reaction by government to the ZCTU National protest on 13 September 2006.
On the day, 226 workers were arrested country wide when government unleashed Anti- riot squad, and the militia (Zanu PF youths) to violently stop workers from carrying out a peaceful demonstration to show government that workers were suffering.
In a move reminiscent of the malevolence of the pre Independence and apartheid era, the government through use of its security agents, became an instigator of violence in a bid to instill fear among Zimbabweans. Sixteen (16) ZCTU leaders were detained at Matapi Police Station holding cells, which were condemned as unfit for human habitation by the Supreme Court. The police went on to brutally batter the ZCTU leadership.
Besides the above, a number of citizens were beaten up and some suffered severe injuries. Some have now died because of these injuries.
We are once again have seen the ugly head of state brutality manifesting itself in recent years with the so-called New Dispensation shooting at point blank range innocent and unarmed citizens demonstrating against government policies. The ZCTU would like to urge workers not to be intimidated by the use of force by government to suppress the feelings of people. Denying workers their constitutionally ingrained rights of freedom of association and expression will only serve to agitate workers more and prepare them for a direct and sustained confrontation with the masters of oppression and exploitation.
The ZCTU will always demand justices to those who were injured or killed for the right to express themselves as well as defending the rights of workers. We say you are the heroes of today and we salute you.
ISSUED BY THE ZCTU INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
13 September 2021
__________________________
Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street, Braamfontein, 2017
P.O.Box 1019, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct line: 010 219-1348