Employment Equity

Philosophy and why it is important

Hulamin believes in the development of all its employees regardless of race and gender, with emphasis on the people from designated groups, and regards employment equity as a special intervention required to address the situation resulting from blacks having been previously disadvantaged in South Africa.

Employment equity is an integral component of Hulamin's business strategy and is focused on the following:

• The elimination of unfair discrimination within the workplace; and
• The implementation of affirmative action measures to achieve equitable representation of designated groups across all occupational levels within the organisation.

Responsibilities

The CEO is ultimately responsible for employment equity within the organisation and the HR executive is the appointed senior employment equity manager to drive the implementation thereof. Employment equity progress is monitored through divisional employment equity committees, which report to the Hulamin Employment Equity Committee. This committee in turn reports to the Transformation Committee.

Structure

The Hulamin board, Executive Committee, employee representatives and employees are the stakeholders for employment equity.

Over and above the annual consultation process as required by law, consultation takes place regularly within the following forums:

• Employment equity committees, comprising employees, which exist at a strategic and an operational level, monitor and evaluate progress on employment equity issues at meetings held quarterly; and
• The Transformation Committee is chaired by a non-executive director and the Hulamin Employment Equity Meeting is chaired by the CEO. Meetings take place quarterly.

Targets are set according to a three-year horizon. Targets were set in 2008 to be achieved by 31 December 2010. (See table "Performance against targets" on the next page.) New targets will be set for the period 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2013.

The following measures are in place to ensure targets are reached:

• Training and development initiatives;
• Talent and performance management;
• Mentorship and coaching programmes;
• Career development programmes;
• Development programmes for technologists;
• Development plans for women;
• Diversity management programmes;
• Targeted recruitment and selection for people from designated groups;
• Targeted promotion for people from designated groups;
• Learnership programmes for people with disabilities;
• Developed strategic partnerships with universities and Universities of Technology to recruit people from disciplines relevant to our business; and
• Retention strategies.

Targets and achievements

Areas of achievement include:

• During the past two years steady progress has been achieved in improving the percentage of black representation at management level from 51% to 58%. This is notable progress considering that black representation at this level remained at around 50% for some time;
• During the past two years the number of women employees has increased to 372 from 317 in January 2008. Over the past three years the number of women technologists has increased from 12 to 28, with most of these women being appointed through the in-service training programme;
• The 2010 in-service trainee intake comprised of 76% women compared to 50% in 2009;
• Sixteen women apprentices qualified as artisans in less than the required four-year training period. Currently there are four women apprentices out of a total of 20. Plans are in place to accelerate the development of female artisans to senior artisan positions. Some of the strategies being employed include coaching, mentoring, on-the-job training, specialised technical training and inter-departmental rotation;
• There are 174 women workers at shop floor level compared to 151 in January 2009. Efforts remain focused on developing women at shop floor level so as to have a pool of technically qualified women from which apprentices can be sourced. Three women from shop floor positions have been appointed to team leader positions, which previously were predominantly occupied by males. Training programmes are in place to enhance the development of women at shop floor level; and
• Eight people with disabilities completed a learnership programme at Hulamin which began in May 2007 and ended in February 2010. Four of these learners have been appointed to permanent positions and one has been offered a limited duration contract of 12 months. Of the remaining three people, two have been appointed to permanent administrative positions at Standard Bank and one has been appointed to a learnership programme at the local municipality.

In September 2009, an additional eleven people with disabilities began an 18-month learnership programme. One of these learners has been appointed permanently to a switchboard operator position.

Due to the current business climate, little or no recruitment took place during 2010, restricting Hulamin's ability to meet its 2010 targets.

Data submitted to the Department of Labour

In accordance with the Employment Equity Act (No 55 of 1998), employment equity reports are submitted to the Department of Labour on an annual basis.

In terms of section 22 of the Act, Hulamin is required to publish a summary of its employment equity report in its Annual Report. The table below reflects Hulamin's employee profile as at 31 May 2010.

Total number and rate of employee turnover with a breakdown by gender

Employee turnover for 2010 was 263. This represents 11% of the total complement. The gender split of the departing employees was as follows:

Females: 57

Males: 206