The new measures will promote diversity and equality in the workplace and require enterprises to develop transformation plans, while compelling labour inspectors to inspect workplaces and to issue employers with compliance orders, the Presidency said in a statement.
Trade union Solidarity said on Thursday it was gearing up for a “huge legal battle” over the bill, which it said was unconstitutional, will keep businesses small, and cost thousands of jobs.
If there is no intervention, this government will carry on with its policy of ineffective centralisation and it will even go so far as to take over the human resources function in organisations,” Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said in a statement.
The DA said on Thursday it would join Solidarity’s legal action, maintaining that the act wouldn’t bring about transformation, but would rather enrich a number of politically connected individuals, while it would also reinforce the racial categorisation of the past.
Business Unity SA (BUSA), meanwhile, welcomed the step, given that it ended a period of uncertainty but also formed part of the transformation agenda, and would help affirm social dialogue through meaningful dialogue on sector targets.
BUSA, however, said it would continue to engage with the Department of Labour, given that some areas of the bill are still problematic