CODE 300 – EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

Unless there are specific measures aimed at increasing the pool of available black skilled employees at management level, as well as at other employment levels, the current distorted statistics will take years to change. Altron is convinced that by implementing its policies of employment equity and skills development, the Group will be making a significant contribution to the urgent national imperatives in regard to employment and ultimately enhancing Altron’s profitability.

This aspect of BBBEE is largely regulated/supported by legislation and consequently must be considered in conjunction with the provision of the Employment Equity Act, No 55 of 1998, and the Skills Development Act, No 97 of 1998.

Implementation guidelines

Achievements in compliance with the code on employment equity are based on the premise that successful companies are those which embrace diversity at their core, and unlock the value that is inherent within a diverse workplace.
This code measures the numbers of black employees holding positions of senior, middle and junior management as well as the number of black disabled employees, indicated by the job description and function of the relevant employee. The code encourages all entities to align their EEA2 reports on senior, middle and junior management with the codes’ reports. This means that all senior, middle and junior management reflected in the EEA2 report as such, must be reflected the same way in the codes against senior, middle and junior management categories.
All entities within the Group will immediately endeavour to align the Occupational Category definitions of senior, middle and junior management throughout the Group with the definitions contained in the CoGP, guided by the EEA10 Occupational Category definitions in the Employment Equity Act. The EEA9 semantic scale such as Paterson, Hay etc, will be used as the guideline in determining the occupational levels of relevant employees. This will result in a uniform approach to determining the occupational levels and categories of employees in respect of the EEA2 reports.
The impact of the Adjustment for Gender (GAF) will always be borne in mind when filling senior, middle and junior management positions. The GAF is a secondary gender target inherent in every indicator in the employment equity code. The categories of senior, middle and junior management require that half of the black people in each category have to be black women, otherwise only half of the points that would have been received are in fact allocated.
Recognising that there is a current shortage of black women in certain categories, there is a preference for black women to be employed or promoted when filling vacant positions within the Group.

The way that this works is:

Indicator	Target as per code	40% subminimum – if this is not achieved (after applying the GAF), then score zero in this indicator
Black disabled	2%	0,8%
Black senior management	43%	17,2%
Black middle management	63%	25,2%
Black junior management	68%	27,2%

The employment of black people and black women in particular, into senior, middle and junior management positions is a priority and will be reflected more practically in a revised Group recruitment policy.
The employment of black disabled persons is a priority within the Group, and a guideline, to be applied uniformly across the Group, will be drawn up indicating a procedure to be followed regarding whether an employee is considered to be a black disabled person in terms of the Act, as well as the CoGP.
The codes have introduced a separate measurement criterion (subminimum) which states that if the measured entity has not achieved 40% of the target in a specific employment equity category, then that entity will score zero in that category.