(Parliamentary debate: Employment Equity Amendment Bill)
The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, which was tabled in Parliament today, has been put on hold for now. The opposition parties that do not support the Amendment, left the National Assembly in a coordinated effort and as a result, the ANC did not have the necessary quorum to adopt the law.
The FF Plus is strongly opposed to cosmetic transformation targets and restrictive labour legislation, which sets sectoral targets in an attempt to impose transformation in a superficial way to the detriment of economic growth and job creation.
The proposed Amendment Bill will afford the Minister of Labour the power to determine race-based targets for the various industrial sectors.
Employers in the private sector's voluntary compliance with reasonable employment targets will, in terms of the new Amendment, no longer be applicable and more stringent compliance, through certificates issued by the Department, will be imposed.
The FF Plus is of the opinion that the labour market is already being over-regulated. Legislation, like the National Minimum wage, the arbitrary expansion of unfair collective bargaining agreements and amendments, such as this one, are all counter-productive and hamper job creation.
This policy along with the other failures, like the country's educational system, is busy destroying the economy and excluding the majority of South Africans from the labour market. It is like putting a band-aid on a gaping head wound.
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