Original Research http://www.sajhrm.co.za Open Access affirmative action (AA) processes to redress the past disadvantages experienced by designated groups (Hlongwane, 2013;Leonard & Grobler, 2006). Despite this, competing in the job market continued to be difficult for black people, women and people with disabilities (Mputa, 2016). This was predominantly because of differing apartheid-era education standards and quality (Nyoka & Lekalake, 2015).However, many employment equity (EE) measures, such as preferential treatment and numerical goals, have become associated with negative connotations, such as 'a drop in standards', 'racism', 'unfair treatment', 'tokenism', 'reverse discrimination' and 'incompetence' (Motileng, 2004). These EE measures have created racial tensions and resentment in the workplace, thus detrimentally impacting employee morale (EM) (Jooste, 2014). Thus, this study investigates the correlation between perceptions of EE and EM, and whether these perceptions differ significantly on the grounds of race, gender and between white and non-white employees at a selected public service organisation in Cape Town.