Public hearings on EE Amendment bill

THE DEPARTMENT of Labour is set to unpack the Employment Equity (EE) Amendment Bill and Regulations to the labour market community of Kimberley tomorrow.

The public hearings will take place at the Horseshoe Inn from 8.30am to 2pm.

Held under the theme: “Real transformation makes business sense”, the hearings focus on EE reporting advocacy and the amendments to EE legislation, more especially section 53, as well as regulations, designed to fast-track the transformation of workplaces.

Acting spokesperson for the department, Mokgadi Pela, said yesterday that the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and the Draft Employment Equity Regulations had already been published in the Government Gazette.

“This was in response to the slow pace of transformation in the workplaces. The department is using the public hearings to gather comments to the EE amendments.”

The public hearings are open to employers or heads of organisations, academics, assigned senior managers, consultative EE forum members, human resource practitioners, trade unions representatives and employees.

The public hearings on Employment Equity Amendments and Regulations started on October 2 in East London, followed by five more hearings held in East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

They will end on October 26 in Johannesburg.