Particulars of the action will be announced later this week. Court documents in the Labour Court will ask that Eskom’s affirmative action plan be declared invalid in its entirety. The union believes that this plan contravenes the Employment Equity Act.
The premise of Solidarity’s court application is that Eskom had not sufficiently consulted with the parties concerned regarding its new affirmative action plan before the plan was finalised. In addition, Solidarity believes that Eskom’s plan does not take other relevant factors such as the available pool of people with appropriate qualifications into account.
If Solidarity’s application is successful, it could have far-reaching consequences for the entire public sector as the affirmative action policies of other government institutions are based on the same principle.
Solidarity will also, in collaboration with the organisation aimed at growing less independent fo Eskom for power – KragDag, disclose particulars regarding a petition campaign on independent power supply. The purpose of the petition is to exert pressure on government to repeal the regulations hampering independent electricity generation.
“On the one hand, we want to call Eskom to order, so that it would review its affirmative action plan and irrational race targets, in order to prevent the company from losing much-needed expertise. On the other hand, we want to empower our communities and encourage them to supply electricity proactively and independently. The public simply cannot remain fully dependent on Eskom to supply all the electricity they need,” explained Solidarity Deputy General Secretary Johan Kruger.
