Employment equity practices at selected companies in South Africa

Abstract

In order to redress historical workplace discrimination, in 1998 the South African government introduced employment equity legislation. Companies employing 50 or more people or those with specified financial turnovers, are required to comply with such legislation. Four years later, the present exploratory study aimed to identify practices that appear to be supportive or not of the sentiments of employment equity at selected companies in South Africa and to highlight apparent 'best practices' in this area. Twenty-one companies were included in the study, with 114 interviews being conducted and 47 focus groups being run involving, in total, 217 people. The areas of study focus included: progress to date and perceived problems, management commitment and accountability, consultation and communication, employment practices, special measures for people with disabilities and organisational culture. The findings indicate that while progress towards achieving employment equity in South African companies is generally perceived to be slow, progress has been made in certain areas. However, problems pertaining to holistic practices to support employment equity were found to be lacking.

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