White male dominance worries CEE

JOHANNESBURG. — White males are still dominating the country’s top management positions in most companies, leaving the labour department and Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) deeply concerned about compliance. Another worrying trend for officials as contained in the CEE Annual Report was the correlation between the number of terminated white males in top management, which stood at 51,2 percent and the national recruitment figures,which were at 42,1 percent.

This meant that white males were absorbed elsewhere in the system, instead of the ideal situation where their exit from top management positions would have opened up space for previously disadvantaged candidates.

The statistics which failed to show substantial improvement from past years are driving the CEE commissioners to the ground, where the organisation will engage with employers in an effort to get to the bottom of the disappointing results.

The labour minister, Mildred Oliphant issued employers who were still non-compliant with a last warning before her department institutes legal action that could strip them of 2 percent to 10 percent of their total turnover through fines.

“This is the last warning, we agreed with the commission that they will take six months to engage with employers and employees, that will be the end of allowing that process. If the company or department is not complying, our responsibility is to take them to the labour court and it will decide,” said Oliphant.

Chairperson of the CEE, Tabea Kabinde said they had identified that there was some form of exclusivity in the workplace, which mainly sidelined designated groups.

She argued that findings which showed there was a high number of white individuals entering the workplace in comparison to black people, yet if the numbers were to be reversed in terms of graduation, a different story could be told.

“What we see is that there is a particular mindset around how people are brought into the workplace, there’s also a particular mindset in terms of how the workplace operates.

“It seems, to a large extend, there is exclusivity in the workplace, people are not being brought in, for whatever reason, could it be attitudes, beliefs around competencies that people have or lack of opportunity for people to enter the workplace,” explained Kabinde. — IOL.