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Cape Town - The new regulations in terms of the Employment Equity Act are a vast improvement and should give businesses a free hand to run to run their companies as they see fit, according to the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“We are delighted to see that all references to staff compositions that have to reflect national or regional demographics have been dropped," said Janine Myburgh, president of the chamber.
"This was of great concern in the Western Cape where the demographic profile is quite different from the national profile.”
The downside of the regulations was that they still required businesses to fill in and file a number of forms and this would add to the administrative burden, according to the chamber.
It also raised the question of whether the department of labour had the capacity to study and analyse these forms.
“The problem with red tape like this is that it adds to the costs of both businesses and the government bureaucracy,” said Muburgh.
The new regulations clearly make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees on grounds of race, gender, disability and they force employers to pay equal wages for equal work.
“This is not really a concern, because good employers do that anyway,” said Myburgh.
“What is more important is that they give employers the leeway to pay the more competent, skilled, experienced and productive workers more than average performers."
In her view this is positive differentiation and essential if SA is to make businesses improve efficiency and performance to create economic growth and more jobs.
Myburgh said the chamber is pleased to see the regulations used the term “proportionate”.
“It is essential that all pay should be proportionate to the contribution or the value of the employee’s input to the company,” she said.
- Fin24
