Solidarity pokes holes in EE report

Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity has poked holes in the recently released report by the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) on transformation in workplaces, citing flagrant errors and misconceptions are rendering the report less than useful as a policy guidance tool.

The trade union said on Thursday that the acting chairperson of the CEE, Mpho Nkeli, sketches a very bleak picture about the slow pace of transformation.

According to Nkeli, the CEE report clearly indicates that white males still dominate the top echelons of the workplace, yet they are in the minority in society.
    
"While this may be true, the marked reduction in the proportion of top-level jobs held by white people shown by the CEE's own figures - even though these figures are flawed - is not clearly shown in this year's CEE report," said the trade union.

It said the methodology actually used, namely self-selection by businesses, does not conform to statistical norms.

"This already renders any conclusions with respect to any changes in racial representation dubious. The complete lack of correct statistical methodology is the same as in all the previous years. The CEE's report also even includes some mistakes with simple arithmetic."

At the lower levels, where most people - of all racial groups - are employed, broadly "equitable racial representivity" has been reached, Solidarity added.
 
"If the CEE report contain flagrant errors like these, how is it possible to take it seriously as policy guiding tools? These kinds of errors are in addition to the flawed statistical methodology all of the reports already suffer from."
 
The CEE report covered 3 695 large employers and 4.4 million employees and showed white male representation in workplaces declined from 21.9% in 2001 to 15% in 2009.   

The figure for 2003 was also 21.9%. Black male representation increased from 28.3% in 2001 to 33.9% in 2003 to 39% in 2009. White female representation was at 12.6% in 2009, down from 18.8% in 2001 and 16.3% in 2003.
 
Solidarity, though, says the report once again mainly focuses on the top occupational levels, which account for only a fraction of the working population of South Africa.

Only 17 154 (0.4%) of the total number of people were at the top management occupational level. Senior managers represented 60 970 (1.4%) people in the sample, while 319 984 (7.2%) were at the professionally qualified (experienced specialists, mid-management) level.

The report counted a total of 660 678 white individuals employed in the companies that submitted reports. Of this total, only 10 954 (1.7%) were at top management level. A further 37 755 (5.7%) were at senior management level and 139 949 (21.2%) were at professional level.

 - Fin24.com