Labour imposes fines

THE department of labour has announced that employers who did not comply with the Employment Equity Act could lose over R3 million in fines.

This emerged during the department’s road show in Polokwane late Tuesday.

Speaking at the roadshow, the department’s assistant director, Pertunia Sele, said the new amendments to the act would force employers to comply with the act.

She said the amendments have also given the department director-general (DG) more powers to impose a fine in accordance with Schedule 1 only if a designated employer failed to prepare an Employment Equity Act plan. Designated employers are those who employ 50 or more employees or those who are designated in terms of the threshold within a given sector.

“This simply means that after an inspection has been conducted and the findings are negative, the inspectors would immediately recommend that the DG impose a fine through the labour court, as opposed to days gone by,” said Sele.

Department of labour provincial chief inspector, Phaswane Tladi offered a stern warning, saying the new amendments to the act would help the department fight the imbalances of the past as the mechanism to ensure compliance had been improved drastically.

Tladi added that the amendments would see non-complying employers with no previous contraventions paying a hefty fine of R1,5 million or 2% of the employer’s turnover.

Non-complying employers with previous contravention in respect of the same provision would pay a hefty fine of R1,8 million or 4% of the employer’s turnover and those with previous contravention within the 12 months or two previous contraventions in respect of the same provision within three years, would be fined R2,4 million or 6% of the employer’s turnover, while those with previous contravention in respect of the same provision within three years, would pay R2,4 million or 8% of the employer’s turnover.

A fine of up to R30 million may be imposed on those employers who impede compliance with provisions of the legislation.