Deadline looming for Electronic Employment Equity returns

Companies that haven’t submitted their Employment Equity reports manually by 01 October 2010, still have until 15 January 2011 to submit their reports electronically.

To encourage companies to convert to electronic submissions the Department gave companies intending to submit electronic returns more time and now they have just a few days left to do so.

Grant Lloyd, managing director of payroll and HR software specialist Softline Pastel Payroll, points out that companies with less than 150 employees but more than 50, who are required to submit only every second year, must send in their reports this year. Companies with more than 150 employees submit every year. In addition, please refer to the Annual Turnover Table (Schedule 4 of the Employment Equity Act) to determine if your company is classified as a ‘Designated Employer’.

“The Department of Labour’s annual EE Report for 2009-2010 highlighted a significant 30% increase in report submissions from 2007 to 2009,” says Lloyd. “It would appear that the no tolerance approach by the Employment Equity Commissioner has made an impact. The Director-General may apply to the Labour Court to impose fines on employers who do not comply.”

In July last year amendments were made to simplify the information required for the Employment Equity reporting process.

“This makes reporting easier and employers with payroll software that accommodates the amended reporting templates will find all of the information necessary to accurately complete the return resides conveniently in their payroll system,” says Lloyd. “This data can be automatically extracted and pre-populated into the required report formats.”