Employment Equity Plan

All designated employers are required to design an Employment Equity Plan specific to their business needs, projected over a 3-5 year period, with planned annual targets. The Plan documents and tracks reasonable progress towards achieving Employment Equity targets.

The Employment Equity Act allows employers to create a site-specific or business-specific Plan, unique to their needs in achievable periods. There is a specific recommended template from the Department of Employment and Labour, which guides the user through the process. This is called an EEA13 document.

A designated employer is an employer who has 50 or more employees, employers who employ less than 50 employees but whose annual turnover exceeds or equals the amounts in Schedule 4 of the Employment Equity Act, or an employer who has been declared a designated employer in terms of a collective agreement.

The Employment Equity Act requires employers to take certain measures to achieve Employment Equity.

1. Employers must consult with the unions and employees in order to make sure that the Plan is accepted by everybody and to allow all parties to have fair input.
2. Employers must analyse all employment policies, practices and procedures, and prepare a profile of their workforce in order to identify any problems relating to employment equity.
3. Employers must prepare and implement an Employment Equity Plan, setting out the Affirmative Action measures they plan to take to achieve the Employment Equity goals.
4. Employers must report to the Department of Labour on the implementation of the Plan in order for the department to monitor their compliance.
5. Employers must display a summary of the provisions of the Act in all languages relevant to their workplace. The summaries are available from the government printer and certain offices of the Department of Employment and Labour.

The deadline for employers to submit 2024 Reports (EEA2 & EEA4 forms) is 15 January 2025. The Employment Equity reporting season for both manual and online reporting opened on 1 September 2024. For manual reporting, the closing date was 2 October 2024.  

The relevant forms to submit are obtainable from the online services tab of the Department of Employment and Labour’s website at www.labour.gov.za

Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal assists with completing and submitting both EEA2 and EEA4 reports to the Department of Employment and Labour on behalf of clients. Please contact the Recruitment Agency for more information.

Anisha Naidoo

HR Manager

Reference

Andre. “Employment Equity Act.” Labour Guide South Africa, 1 July 2010, labourguide.co.za/employment-equity/employment-equity-act.