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Cosatu threatens employment equity strikes

Cape Town - Cosatu is threatening to strike at companies which do not reflect provincial demographics.

In what many regard as a ground-breaking case, the Cape Town Labour Court on Friday ordered the department of correctional services to ensure that national and regional demographics are taken into account when employment equity targets are determined.

The court found that the department's current affirmative action policies amounted to "unfair" discrimination.

The trade union Solidarity approached the court on behalf of a number of coloured employees of the department to challenged the department’s employment equity plan.
 
Cosatu said it hoped the court case will serve as a clear indication to the provincial government, City of Cape Town and private sector "that they have an over-representation of white people in senior positions".

"We are going to use this ruling to ensure that every workplace becomes representative of the province's demographics, even if we must strike at companies to enforce it," said Cosatu.

The union welcomed the ruling and said it "makes it clear that blacks generally should be preferenced ahead of whites for employment equity purposes".

"This case also makes it compulsory that the make-up of the population of the Western Cape must be reflected in all jobs in the Western Cape," said Cosatu.

"This will mean that coloureds, who are the majority in the Western Cape, will be the majority of persons in employ."

Cosatu said it welcomed the fact that the court said that whites will not be considered as a designated group.

It said in terms of the demographics of the population of the Western Cape whites are over represented in terms of the percentage of them employed in the province.

- Fin24

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