Disability Equity Management
Introduction – Session 3
The Employment
Equity Act - 1998
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Key Requirements of the EE Act
ACHIEVING WORKPLACE EQUITY
Implementing
affirmative action
measures to redress
Elimination of disadvantages in
unfair
discrimination employment
experienced by
designated groups
CHAPTER II CHAPTER III
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EE Act Purpose
• Promote constitutional right to equality
• Promote exercise of true democracy
• Eliminate unfair discrimination in employment
• Ensure the implementation of employment equity to
redress the effects of discrimination
• Achieve a diverse workforce broadly
representative of our people
• Promote economic development & efficiency in the
workforce
• Give effect to SA’s ILO obligations
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Key EE Act Definitions
• ‘Reasonable accommodation’
– any modification or adjustment to a job or to
the working environment that will enable a
person from a designated group to have
access to or to participate or advance in
employment
• ‘Suitably qualified person’
– a person contemplated in sections 20(3) & (4)
• s20(3) - Criteria to consider
• s20(4) - How to consider them
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Suitably Qualified Person
• ‘3) For purposes of this Act, a person may
be suitably qualified for a job as a result of
any one of, or any combination of that
person’s -
• (a) formal qualifications;
• (b) prior learning;
• (c) relevant experience; or
• (d) capacity to acquire, within a reasonable
time, the ability to do the job.
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Suitably Qualified Person
• ‘(5) In making a
determination under subsection
(4), an employer may not
unfairly discriminate against
a person solely on the
grounds of that person’s lack
of relevant experience.
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EE Act Chapter II: Prohibition of
Unfair Discrimination
• Came into effect in February 1999
• Equal opportunity to be promoted by
eliminating unfair discrimination
• Unfair discrimination, directly or indirectly,
prohibited on one or more grounds:
– race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, family
responsibility, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual
orientation, age, disability, religion, HIV status,
conscience, belief, political opinion, culture,
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Fair Discrimination
• It will not be unfair discrimination
to
– take affirmative action measures
– distinguish or prefer on the basis of
the inherent requirements of the job
• Harassment is a form of unfair
discrimination
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EE Act Chapter III: Affirmative Action
• To achieve employment equity
• By affirmative action measures
• For designated employers only
• Has two main focuses
– employment equity plan
– implementing affirmative action measures
– monitoring & enforcement
• Came into effect in June 1999
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EE Act Affirmative Action Duties 1/2
• S13(1) Designated employers must
implement affirmative action measures for
people from designated groups
• S13(2) Designated employers must
– consult with employees
– conduct an analysis [ ‘3 P’s & WE]
– prepare an employment equity plan
– annually report t the DoL's Director General
on progress with the plan
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EE Act Affirmative Action Duties 2/2
• S13(1) Affirmative action measures:
– apply to suitably qualified people
– from the designated groups
– to ensure equal opportunities and equitable
representation
• S15(2) AA measures must include
specific components
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Qualifications on AA Duties
• Preferential treatment required
• But not compulsory quotas
• No absolute barriers to prospective or continued
employment or advancement of persons who are not
from designated groups
• See also
– Director-General determination whether the employer is
implementing employment equity
– benchmarks against which progress and compliance will be
measured
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Specific Affirmative Action Measures
• Identifying and eliminating employment barriers
• Measures designed to further diversity
• Making reasonable accommodation for people from
designated groups to ensure that they enjoy equal
opportunities
• Measures to
– ensure the equitable representation of people from
designated groups in all occupational categories and levels
in the workforce
– retain and develop people from designated groups and to
implement appropriate training
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Specific Affirmative Action Measures
f) whether the discrimination has a legitimate purpose;
(g) whether and to what extent the discrimination
achieves its purpose;
(h) whether there are less restrictive and less
disadvantageous means to achieve the purpose;
(i) whether and to what extent the respondent has taken
such steps as being reasonable in the circumstances
to-
(i) address the disadvantage which arises from or is
related to one or more of the prohibited
grounds; or
(ii) accommodate diversity.
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Reflection
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Fill in Missing Word/Phrase
A. Motivated
B. Competent
C. Diverse
EE Act Purpose
1.Promote constitutional right to equality
2.Eliminate unfair discrimination
3.redress the effects of discrimination
4.Achieve a ….. workforce
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True or False?
A. True
B. False
Suitably qualified can be
determined based on the
experience of an individual
alone..
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Suitably Qualified Person
• (4), an employer may not
unfairly discriminate
against a person solely on
the grounds of that
person’s lack of relevant
experience.
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Fill In Missing Word/Phrase
A. Addition
B. Enrichment
C. Modification or adjustment
‘Reasonable accommodation’
any ………..to a job or to the working
environment that will enable a person
from a designated group to have access
to or to participate or advance in
employment
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Remember
• Additions and enrichment of a job could
be part of reasonable accommodation –
but the Act is specific:
• “any modification or adjustment to a job
or to the working environment that will
enable a person from a designated
group to have access to or to participate
or advance in employment”
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True/False
A. True
B. False
Reasonable accommodation
is an Affirmative Action
measure
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Affirmative Action Measures
• S13(1) Affirmative action measures:
– apply to suitably qualified people
– from the designated groups
– to ensure equal opportunities and equitable
representation
• Making reasonable accommodation for people
from designated groups to ensure that they
enjoy equal opportunities
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