Statement on employment Equity Bill and the Apartheid Wage gap

Title: Statement on employment Equity Bill and the Apartheid Wage gap
Creator: COSATU
Subject: COSATU
Date Issued: Aug 1998
Date: Aug 1998
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/109791
Identifier: vital:33189
Description: The Portfolio Committee on Labour considered amendments to the Employment Equity Bill which were tabled in parliament by the Department of Labour today. Amongst these were amendments in response to COSATU's proposals for closing the apartheid wage gap. COSATU has serious reservations, however, about the tabled amendments on this issue, and believes that the amendments proposed today by the ANC should be supported as they address these defects. Finalisation of the clauses relating to the wage gap has been postponed to next week, when the Bill will be voted on by the Committee. COSATU has consistently maintained the view, both in our submissions to the committee last month, and at NEDLAC, that the Employment Equity Bill must address the issue of the apartheid wage gap, if it is to have meaning for the millions of ordinary workers, who are the worst victims of apartheid discrimination, and who will not be able to reach the upper echelons of the workforce, despite the affirmative action provisions of the legislation. We have supported the philosophy of the legislation that employment equity must benefit everybody, and not just an elite few. We have taken the view that the legislation must address the critical legacy of massive income inequalities, which was a deliberate policy under apartheid, in order to make this philosophical approach a reality, and that in this respect the Draft Bill was seriously defective. We proposed a series of concrete amendments to remedy this defect, within the broad philosophical approach and architecture of the Bill. We also proposed an integrated strategy to address these differentials, which combines measures in the Employment Equity legislation with other legislation and processes. A number of organisations have supported us in this view. Further a concept document tabled by the Department of Labour in the parliamentary committee broadly endorsed this approach.
Format: 2 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Language: English
Rights: Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Rights: No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher

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