Union welcomes withdrawal of ‘draconian’ racial regulation by DoL

28th May 2014

By: Natalie Greve

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

  

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The Department of Labour’s (DoL’s) undertaking to reportedly do away with certain “draconian” racial regulations is a step in the right direction, trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday.

Portions of the draft employment equity regulations, published in February this year, stipulated that designated employers employing over 150 people may only use the national race demography when appointing persons to the top three management levels.

Implementation of those codes would have meant that coloured persons, in particular, but also many white, Indian and black persons, would have inevitably had to relocate to find jobs, the union asserted.

“At the moment, we are trying to obtain official confirmation of the withdrawal as well as of the full new wording the codes are to assume. We are still keeping options open for legal action after, earlier this year, having undertaken to fight the provisions in question right up to the highest courts,” Solidarity Centre for Fair Labour Practice head Dirk Groenewald said in a statement.

He said the regulations on employment equity were released for comment in February after the amended Employment Equity Act took effect.

‘In terms of this Act, the Minister of Labour obtained extensive discretionary powers to determine, by means of regulation, which factors and combinations, for example regional or national race demography, [need] to be considered for employment equity.

“On the basis of the discretionary powers provided for in the amended Act, the department’s apparent intention was to make an ideology of absolute race representivity by means of the regulations binding on employers,” Groenewald noted.

At the time, Solidarity pointed out that discretionary powers may not be unlimited and that the proposed regulations would not stand up in court. 

Groenewald believed that the “huge” public pressure brought to bear by Solidarity and others against the codes made the department rethink the matter.

“It again shows how important public pressure is and what significant role civil organisations can play to oppose harmful laws and policies.”

In a letter to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant last month, Solidarity requested that the controversial draft regulations on employment equity be withdrawn.

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said at the time that the provisions were both legally and morally wrong.

“By arbitrarily applying numerical targets based on national race demographics, members of minority groups are alienated and, as a consequence, resentment among minority groups is mounting. This results in serious polarisation between race groups and, therefore, it is simply not morally justifiable,” he stated.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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