Moneyweb reports that retailers TFG and Truworths as well as industrial firm Barloworld are among the companies under the Department of Employment and Labour’s (DEL’s) scrutiny for allegedly failing to comply with employment equity laws.

According to DEL chief director of statutory and advocacy services Fikiswa Mncanca-Bede, the areas of non-compliance in the cases of TFG and Barloworld are the overrepresentation of white males and females at senior and professionally qualified levels. At Truworths, she alleges that white males are overrepresented at top management level, while there is a general lack of implementation of affirmative action measures as required by the Employment Equity Act (EEA). “The Department intends to take legal action against these companies,” Mncanca-Bede indicated, adding that the application would ask the courts to impose a fine of R1.5 million or 2% of turnover. “We want to warn employers to take matters of employment equity [seriously]. If they think compliance is expensive let them try non-compliance,” she stated. However, Truworths asserted that it was fully compliant with the EEA and advised that it was engaging with the DEL. TFG said it had not received a verdict of non-compliance, but a confirmatory notice instead, which reflected that the company’s planned employment equity numerical targets needed to be revised. The company has engaged the DEL and has resubmitted its plan. Barloworld indicated that its equipment business had not received a verdict of non-compliance from the DEL, but it was making strides in achieving its long-term plan to have its workforce reflect the same level of diversification of SA’s economically active population.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ntando Thukwana at Moneyweb

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