BMF creates legal fund to take on companies violating Employment Equity laws
FIN 24 / 19 AUGUST 2019 - 20.47 / STAFF REPORTER
The Black Management Forum has established a litigation fund with the aim of taking legal action against "gross violations derailing transformation in South Africa", the organisation said.
The fund is in line with a resolution to ramp up advocacy against non-compliant companies, which was taken at the BMF's 43rd national annual general meeting, said a statement issued on Monday.
"The BMF has historically played an important role through advocacy to advance the national objectives of socio-economic transformation. This is one of the four pillars of the raison d’être of the BMF," the statement said.
Black Management Forum president Andile Nomlala (PICS: Supplied)
The forum is seeking to "reinforce its monitoring capacity" through the establishment of the fund, the statement added.
The fund will "serve as a tool to enforce transformation in an effort to achieve justice, fairness and equity", BMF said.
According to BMF, the fund will help the forum finance its efforts to hold public interest companies accountable for not achieving employment equity targets; to champion cost-effective "alternative dispute resolutions" in EE-related matters, in line with the Employment Equity Act and King IV governance guidelines; and to ensure that social and ethics committees prioritise employment equity and transformation as key performance indicators for public interest company boards.
In an interview with BMF president Andile Nomlala in 2018, Fin24 reported that Nomlala intended to focus on promoting both good governance and transformation. The BMF would lobby for enforcement of legislation, Nomlala said at the time.
According to data by the Department of Labour’s 9th Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) annual report (2007-2008), there were 18.8% black people in top management and in the 18th CEE report (2017-2018), the figure decreased to 14.3%.
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