Pretoria - With the submission date for Employment Equity report approaching, the Department of Labour has called on employers to hand in their reports on time.
The department recently conducted rigorous nationwide roadshows advising employers to comply with the equity law requirement.
The department's call follows on the recent launch of the 9th Commission for Employment Equity report which showed that the South African workplace is far from being transformed with white males occupying 61 percent of top management posts.
The report, which covered the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009, was handed over to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana in August.
It revealed that although progress had been made in achieving equity, not enough had been done.
Minister Mdladlana said transformation in the workplace remained slow and still had a long way to go before it reflects South Africa's demographics.
The report showed that white men accounted for 44.7 percent of promotions and 48.2 percent of recruitments. This was followed by 12.7 percent of black men receiving promotions in top management posts and 12.6 percent of them being employed.
Black women on the other hand, occupied 7 percent of recruitment while only 5.8 percent received promotions in top management. This was followed by white women occupying 17.3 percent of promotions and Indian and coloured women coming in at 3 and 2.4 percent respectively.
Regarding income differentiation, the report showed that Whites and Indians on average earn more money at nearly every level while Africans and Coloureds tended to earn the lowest at nearly every level.
The report also recommends that there be zero tolerance on defaulting companies that must result in prosecutions. It also said fines imposed on companies for flouting the law must be escalated to 10 percent of a company's turnover.
