COSATU Welcomes Labour Court Ruling On Employment Equity
COSATU welcomes the ruling by the Labour Court that Provincial demographics should be taken into account in respect of Employment Equity. This ruling makes it clear that blacks generally should be preferred ahead of WHITES for employment equity purposes. This will hopefully serve as a clear indication to the Provincial Government and City of Cape Town municipalities and private sector that have an over-representation of white people in the senior positions.
This case also clarifies that the Provincial demographics must be used, which will make it compulsory that the make-up of the population of the W Cape must be reflected in all jobs in the Western Cape. This will mean that coloureds who are the majority in the W Cape will be the majority of persons in employment. This must however be applied fairly and in line with the rules of Provincial demographics.
COSATU welcomes the fact that the Court said that whites will not be considered as a designated group, because already whites are over represented in terms of the percentage employed in W Cape, than what they make up of the population of the Province. The DA has consistently promoted and preferred white appointees in the W Cape Government as part of their approach of defending the apartheid generational advantage of the white communities, even hiding it as consultants.
Solidarity and the racist organisations have used this case to try and undermine the principle of affirmative action, but as COSATU we welcome the Court's decision to uphold the principle of affirmative action. The Solidarity is now claiming to take the matter on appeal, but really it's just an attempt to keep this issue alive for the elections as a way for the white parties to try and promote the notion of White Coloured solidarity, when the reality of the matter is that the Africans and Coloured and Indians are treated equally second class by the DA government.
We are going to use this ruling to ensure that every workplace becomes representative of the Provinces' demographics, even if we must strike at companies to enforce it.
Statement issued by COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, October 21 2013
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