Looks like it's a tie on who reigns supreme in the employment equity element within the 2009 Top Empowerment Companies (TEC) survey.
Support services group Kelly has not only managed to make the Top Five in the overall TEC ranking but it also scored 15 out of 15 for its efforts to combat racial segregation in the workplace.
Similarly, its runner-up in the employment equity element, financial services group Grand Parade Investments, which has interests in the leisure, hotel and gaming sectors, also scored a total of 15 points. And occupying third position is the clothing and textile manufacturer Seardel Investments Corp, which is one spot down from last year's second position. Seardel scored 13,94 out of a possible 15 but has improved from its score last year and has moved from 108th position in the overall survey last year to rank 26 this year.
Seardel is one of only two companies that have managed to show its face again in this year's employment equity survey. Hosken Consolidation Investments (HCI), which was last year's number six in this category, has landed itself in the seventh spot and second in the overall survey this year.
The Don Group, which outshone most companies for two consecutive years, has failed to make an appearance in the Top 10 list of employment equity.
The Top 10 employment equity list also features pharmaceutical player Cipla Medpro - formerly Enaleni - in the fourth position with 13,77 points. Then follows media group Naspers (11,01), Adcorp (10,85), HCI (10,80), Pick n Pay Stores (10,77), AdaptIT Holdings (10,61) and Nedbank (10,38).
This may suggest that SA corporate is upping its game as far as employment equity is concerned. That is hardly the case if the Employment Equity Commission figures are anything to go by.
Employment equity continues to be an unsettling matter. The overall employment equity report for 2007/2008, as presented by the Employment Equity Commission, has yet again revealed second-rate figures for black representation across the labour market.
There is still a vast underrepresentation of black people in key areas of the labour market, according to the commission. Despite all the attention and companies saying that employment equity is the way, the underrepresentation of blacks has taken on a far more refined approach these days. According to the commission, headed by Black Management Forum president Jimmy Manyi, there is still a long way to go as far as employment equity is concerned. It says there is still continued gross underrepresentation within the African and coloured groups. Nothing significant has happened despite the 15 years into democracy in SA.
The only representation there is for these race groups is at the semiskilled and unskilled occupational levels. Even the universal TEC data shows this point.
High employment equity performers tend to be companies which run on a limited high skills base like Seardel, a clothing manufacturer. Seardel, managed by Walter Simeoni, employs a total of 14 847 people with revenue of R3,9bn. According to its annual report, about 92% of its employees are black, with 42% of those being female, and at least 24% of those are managers.
