Affirmative Action law to get teeth

STRICTER regulations are in the offing to make the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act more enforceable.

Labour Minister Alpheus !Naruseb has lashed out at Namibian employers, saying many were not willing to co-operate and were not making an effort to rectify racially skewed workforce demographics. Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, !Naruseb said that in the years since its implementation, it had emerged that there were shortcomings in the law and that amendments were required to make employers comply with regulations aimed at ensuring a more diverse workforce.He said the findings of an independent study to determine the effectiveness of the affirmative-action legislation and progress towards diversifying the workforce had revealed that progress was generally “unsatisfactory”.!Naruseb said it could be expected that amendments to the law would be tabled before Parliament soon.He said he was in favour of a parliamentary committee investigating and coming up with recommendations on how best to accelerate change and transformation in employment as envisaged by the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act.”We are all agreed that progress in redressing the imbalances that characterise the workforce profile in many relevant employers in this country has been painfully slow,” said !Naruseb.”Persons in designated groups are still under-represented, especially at the management, supervisory and skilled occupational levels.We are aware of some relevant employers who do not want to give their full co-operation to the Employment Equity Commission and thus not complying with the provisions of the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act.”The Labour Minister bemoaned the inefficiencies of the law-enforcement system, saying that employers were encouraged to get away with non-compliance with the Act, because the legal system was slow to act against them.Since 2001, the Employment Equity Commissioner’s Office has filed 213 complaints of non-compliance with the Prosecutor General’s office and the matter is only now receiving some attention.The Employment Equity Commission has recommended lowering the threshold number of employees of what is termed a “relevant” employer (i.e.an employer required to comply with the Act) from 50 or more employees to 25 or 30.”The lowering of the threshold will greatly expand the coverage of the Act and the impact of employment equity,” said !Naruseb.!Naruseb made the remarks during a discussion on a motion introduced by the Congress of Democrats’ Ben Ulenga on the unsatisfactory state of affairs and lack of affirmative action in the public and private sectors alike.!Naruseb said he agreed with Ulenga that Government needed to establish exactly how many companies were actively implementing affirmative action as intended, and they should be stopped from treating it merely as a “numbers game”.”Some employers have embraced compliance with affirmative-action requirements as an opportunity to formulate progressive human-resource development policies that concentrate on training incumbent staff and creating opportunities for upward advancement.Such approaches go a long way to eliminate the de facto “job reservation” that unfortunately still plagues our nation,” said !Naruseb.Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, !Naruseb said that in the years since its implementation, it had emerged that there were shortcomings in the law and that amendments were required to make employers comply with regulations aimed at ensuring a more diverse workforce.He said the findings of an independent study to determine the effectiveness of the affirmative-action legislation and progress towards diversifying the workforce had revealed that progress was generally “unsatisfactory”. !Naruseb said it could be expected that amendments to the law would be tabled before Parliament soon.He said he was in favour of a parliamentary committee investigating and coming up with recommendations on how best to accelerate change and transformation in employment as envisaged by the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act.”We are all agreed that progress in redressing the imbalances that characterise the workforce profile in many relevant employers in this country has been painfully slow,” said !Naruseb.”Persons in designated groups are still under-represented, especially at the management, supervisory and skilled occupational levels.We are aware of some relevant employers who do not want to give their full co-operation to the Employment Equity Commission and thus not complying with the provisions of the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act.”The Labour Minister bemoaned the inefficiencies of the law-enforcement system, saying that employers were encouraged to get away with non-compliance with the Act, because the legal system was slow to act against them.Since 2001, the Employment Equity Commissioner’s Office has filed 213 complaints of non-compliance with the Prosecutor General’s office and the matter is only now receiving some attention.The Employment Equity Commission has recommended lowering the threshold number of employees of what is termed a “relevant” employer (i.e.an employer required to comply with the Act) from 50 or more employees to 25 or 30.”The lowering of the threshold will greatly expand the coverage of the Act and the impact of employment equity,” said !Naruseb.!Naruseb made the remarks during a discussion on a motion introduced by the Congress of Democrats’ Ben Ulenga on the unsatisfactory state of affairs and lack of affirmative action in the public and private sectors alike.!Naruseb said he agreed with Ulenga that Government needed to establish exactly how many companies were actively implementing affirmative action as intended, and they should be stopped from treating it merely as a “numbers game”.”Some employers have embraced compliance with affirmative-action requirements as an opportunity to formulate progressive human-resource development policies that concentrate on training incumbent staff and creating opportunities for upward advancement.Such approaches go a long way to eliminate the de facto “job reservation” that unfortunately still plagues our nation,” said !Naruseb.