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Employment Equity Deregistration: Why is this important?
Dear employer
An employer recently reached out to NEASA for assistance with a Labour Court application that the Department of Employment & Labour (DEL) brought against it for failing to comply with certain sections of the Employment Equity Act (EEA).
In this application, the DEL requested the Labour Court to grant an order imposing fines upon the employer on two grounds:
- its failure to report or inform the Director General (DG) of its inability to report due to its non-designated status, and
- operating without an EE Plan during the inspection.
Each of these contraventions carried with it a maximum permissible fine of R1.5 million, meaning a total amount of R3 million was requested by the DEL to be imposed on the employer.
This employer has been a non-designated employer for several years but failed to inform the DG and failed to apply for deregistration from the EE public register, as they should have done when they became non-designated.
Fortunately, the matter was settled out of court, with the employer being liable for a considerably lower amount, as agreed upon between it and the DEL.
EMPLOYMENT EQUITY REGISTER?
With this in mind, it is important that employers comply with the law when they fall below the thresholds and become non-designated. They must inform the DG that they are no longer a designated employer and apply for deregistration from the EE register.
Thresholds for designated employers are as follows:
Failure to comply with the EEA may lead to serious fines being imposed on employers. The above was only one of several such cases, with the frequency only increasing as the DEL’s enforcement becomes stricter with regards to EE compliance.
For the reasons outlined above, deregistration applications must be submitted immediately.
For assistance, email schalk@neasa.co.za or call on 012 332 5350.
Regards
Schalk Kotzé
Skills Development Facilitator
For more information:
NEASA Media Department
media@neasa.co.za