With the coming into force of the Constitution of South Africa one of the main objects
was the achievement of equality. This entails the use of different measures in order
to achieve a general state of equality in every sphere of society. These measures,
better known as affirmative action, aim at making the workplace more representative
of designated groups. This lead to the coming into force of the Employment Equity
Act which aims at eliminating unfair discrimination and implementing affirmative
action measures in order to promote equality in the workplace. This study
acknowledges the importance of affirmative action, but the application thereof is
mostly criticised as being unfair. The gaps that have been identified include the
following: The arbitrary application of equality in that the court does not give proper
consideration to fairness and the wrong application and notion of affirmative action by
making use of indirect discrimination such as previous disadvantage in stead of
neutral considerations such as under representation in the workplace. Affirmative
action is also understood by some as being a right and not a measure and a defence.
The Employment Equity Act is also exclusively utilised which will result in nondesignated
groups being indirectly drawn from the labour market. Furthermore, to
much stress is put on employment and not enough attention is given to job-creation
and socio-economic development and training. Lastly there is little consideration of
the importance of the employment equity plan in that it is an instrument for the
application of affirmative action in the workplace. In considering these problems it is
evident that the Employment Equity Act will have to be amended by adding proper
criteria in evaluating the fairness of employment equity and providing for the inclusion
of non-designated groups in order to insure the elimination of under-representation in
all labour sectors. Furthermore, more attention must be paid to other problems like
training and development that will add to the success of affirmative action. Finally
employers will have to acknowledge the importance and advantages of an
employment equity plan in that it is an instrument protecting the employer and
assisting him in implementing employment equity. The reform of affirmative action and more specific employment equity can possibly result in a more positive attitude
and a more effective application in South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08222008-085551 |
| Date | 22 August 2008 |
| Creators | Simpson, Lorénze Jean |
| Contributors | Prof JV du Plessis |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08222008-085551/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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