31988Y1228(01)

COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 16 December 1988 on the reintegration and late integration of women into working life (88/C 333/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Whereas a considerable number of women give up work on marriage or on childbirth on account of the difficulty of reconciling their working life and family life;

whereas many young women are not integrated into working life, in particular for family reasons;

Whereas women who wish to return to work or make a late entry into employment often encounter problems and could become long-term unemployed;

Whereas the labour market offers better opportunities for skilled labour;

whereas many women who wish to return to work or make a late entry into employment do not have the qualifications to do so;

Whereas some Member States have carried out research/measures to support the return of women to work;

Whereas the reintegration and late integration of women into working life is a problem throughout the Community, which also requires solutions at Community level;

Whereas all Community citizens must benefit from the large internal market;

whereas the implementation of the social dimension of the internal market necessitates effective measures for the reintegration and late integration of women into working life, HEREBY ADOPTS THIS RESOLUTION:

I. The Council calls on the Member States to take the following measures:

1. build up information on the labour market situation, especially on occupations which do not offer many prospects of employment and occupations which will be in demand in the future, in particular those connected with new technology;

2. ensure that the staff of guidance, training and placement services are qualified to deal with the specific problems of women who wish to return to work or make a late entry into employment (hereinafter referred to as ´the women concerned');

3. ensure that the women concerned enjoy the best conditions, in so far as those conditions are applicable, of access to vocational training and integration into working life;

4. organize, where appropriate in cooperation with both sides of industry, vocational training programmes or other measures which meet the specific needs of the women concerned;

5. promote measures with a view to helping women during preparation for reintegration or late integration into working life, in particular to build up their self-confidence and develop their basic technical skills;

6. promote measures to monitor closely the reintegration and late integration of women during a transitional period, so as to ensure that reintegration and late integration do not end in failure;

7. encourage as far as possible child-minding initiatives organized in a way which takes account of the professional situation of parents and appropriate initiatives to assist disabled and elderly persons in order to lessen the family responsibilities of the women concerned;

8. encourage steps designed to see that breaks in women's careers are accompanied by appropriate measures, for example maintaining skills or keeping up contacts between them and their former employers, inter alia with a view to possible reintegration;

9. develop cooperation between national, regional and local authorities, women's organizations, organizers of training programmes and other interested bodies;

10. build up quantitative and qualitative data enabling all the problems and needs of the women concerned to be identified as far as possible.

II.

The Council calls on the Commission to take the following measures:

1. consolidate the studies carried out in the Member States in the field of the reintegration and late integration of women into working life;

2. list and evaluate the measures taken in the Member States in this field;

3. take account of the women concerned when compiling Community statistics;

4. take account, within the rules of the European Social Fund, of measures for the reintegration and late integration of women into working life;

5. encourage vocational training measures and pilot programmes to help the women concerned;

6. facilitate the exchange of experience between Member States regarding the measures taken by them for the benefit of the women concerned, and disseminate information concerning those measures;

7. forward to the Council, on the basis of the information supplied by the Member States, a report on the implementation of this Resolution not later than five years after its adoption.