A4-0272/98

Resolution on the particular impact of unemployment on women

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the conclusions of the European Council in Essen in 1994 and the five Essen priorities,

- having regard to the conclusions of the Luxembourg Employment Summit in 1997 and the 1998 Employment Guidelines ((OJ C 30, 28.1.1998, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the conclusions of the meeting of EU Ministers for Women in Belfast in May 1998,

- having regard to the results of the Intergovernmental Conference and new Articles 2, 3 and 141 of the Treaty of Amsterdam,

- having regard to its resolution of 19 April 1991 on childcare and equality of opportunity ((OJ C 129, 20.5.1991, p. 224.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 16 September 1997 on the Commission communication on incorporating equal opportunities for women and men into all Community policies and activities ((OJ C 304, 6.10.1997, p. 50.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 6 November 1997 on Commission communication on modernising and improving social protection in the EU ((OJ C 358, 24.11.1997, p. 51.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 19 November 1997 on the Commission proposal for a Council Directive concerning the framework agreement on part-time work concluded by UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC ((OJ C 371, 8.12.1997, p. 60.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 16 December 1997 on the Green Paper on the organisation of work and working hours ((OJ C 14, 19.1.1998, p. 34.)),

- having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Women's Rights (A4-0272/98),

A. whereas all young women wish to enter the labour market as a matter of course after finishing their education or studies,

B. whereas in all Member States there are growing numbers of women of all ages available for employment and wishing to enter or re-enter the world of work outside the home,

C. whereas, despite the growth in employment in all the EU Member States, particularly among women, female unemployment remains higher than male unemployment, except in the United Kingdom and, recently, Sweden,

D. whereas, following the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the extraordinary meeting of the European Council in Luxembourg, the European Union and the Member States have committed themselves to take coordinated action to combat unemployment and whereas the measures to combat female unemployment must be fully integrated into the fight against unemployment in general,

E. whereas, while it is to be welcomed that, despite the tight timetable, the fifteen Member States have all drawn up, adopted and forwarded their national action plans, not all of these devote equal attention to the need to include the fight against female unemployment among the first three chapters, as well as under the fourth chapter, which is specifically devoted to equal opportunities between men and women,

F. whereas evidence shows that women and girls are now achieving better standards of education than men and boys in the vast majority of Member States,

G. considering that Member States should organise information campaigns on equality in schools as soon as children are old enough to understand, to provide a place in schools where young people can discuss equal opportunities, to encourage coeducation as it is a cultural element and a powerful means of integration, to motivate parents to enable their daughters to continue their studies and to avoid premature streaming for girls, which constitutes a form of discrimination,

H. considering that from the earliest stages, education should encourage girls to create and organise their professional life or to have a career plan and that secondary and higher education should enhance the importance of the role of creating enterprises,

I. whereas the level of women's unemployment is severely underestimated due to the current official definition of unemployment excluding many categories where women are in the majority, including casual workers, voluntary workers and those who are inactive but would like to work,

J. whereas high levels of male unemployment in traditional sectors also have an impact on women and on the families concerned,

K. whereas women are more likely than men to be found in precarious, atypical employment in which there is a constant threat of unemployment,

L. whereas in the Member States where the public sector accounts for a well above average proportion of jobs, women employed in that sector are at particular risk of redundancy because of the public savings measures which are required, and whereas, as a result of public spending cuts, the public sector offers fewer and fewer employment opportunities for women seeking their first job,

M. whereas part-time work does not necessarily help women to reconcile professional and family life since working conditions are often more rigid than in full-time employment and part-time work can have a long-term effect on earnings, benefits and promotion prospects,

N. whereas lack of high quality, affordable child care provision makes working life more difficult for women, and whereas the 1992 Recommendation on Child Care has proved insufficient in ensuring adequate child care provision in all Member States,

O. whereas the measures on child care and care of the elderly must take account of women who have a job, but also women who are unemployed, in training or in a marginalised social position,

P. whereas extending social services, particularly through forms of organisation typical of firms in the cooperative, mutual and non-profit sector, can offer new outlets for the employment of women and help to reconcile work and family life,

Q. whereas it is almost exclusively women that take parental leave to look after their children and, although extended career breaks beyond legal parental leave are becoming less common for women, such time taken out of the labour market can have an adverse effect on women's employment prospects,

R. whereas by reason of the linkage of unemployment benefit to previous earnings and the continuing discrepancies between men's and women's earnings, women are, on average, entitled to lower levels of unemployment benefit than men,

S. whereas when unemployment assistance is calculated on the basis of household income, this can oblige women to stay at home away from the labour market since the costs in terms of child care, transport and loss of benefit outweigh the gain for the household through a second salary,

T. whereas in certain Member States women and men who have never worked have no rights to minimal social protection,

U. whereas women are more often over-qualified for the job they do than men and whereas therefore education alone is not the answer to the problem of women's unemployment,

V. whereas vocational training also serves little purpose if there is no secure job available at the end of the training,

W. whereas appropriate vocational training may nevertheless be necessary for the retraining of adult women wishing to re-enter the labour market,

X. whereas there is a great potential for women's employment in setting up SMEs and undertakings in the cooperative, mutual and non-profit sector but greater attention needs to be given to promoting the culture of enterprise among women and facilitating women's access to funds for setting up small businesses including cooperatives set up for social purposes,

Y. considering that access to loans remains more difficult for a woman and in particular for an unemployed woman,

Z. whereas there was little or no 'mainstreaming¨ in the post-Essen Multi-Annual Programmes; whereas, moreover, there was an assumption of gender neutrality in the Member States' programmes implementing the five Essen priorities,

AA. whereas there has been insufficient accountability from Member States as to how Structural Fund monies have been spent to assist unemployed women,

1. Believes there is a need for a new definition of unemployment more accurately reflecting the varying nature of women's economic activity than the current ILO definition, which severely underestimates women's unemployment; calls on the Commission in the meantime to develop systematic publication of statistics which highlight the status of women who are neither in full-time employment nor officially unemployed and to break down by gender all statistical information published in all documents relating to employment policy;

2. Stresses that part-time work can only help overcome unemployment if it is voluntary, not subject to rigid anti-social hours and does not involve a loss of entitlement to social protection or prospects for career development;

3. Considers that a specific definition of part-time work must be drawn up to reduce the ambiguities associated with the weekly working time and the number of days worked per week;

4. Calls urgently on the Member States to provide legislation on the right to part-time work, where the main concern is for every employee to have the freedom to choose whether or not to make use of that right; calls on the Commission to encourage and coordinate action in this field;

5. Calls on Member States and employers to promote the voluntary extension of part-time employment to skilled work and to encourage men as well as women to take up part-time posts, with access to training for all part-time workers on the same basis as full-time employees;

6. Calls on the Commission, in future Employment in Europe reports, to give greater attention to the implications of short-term contracts and their link to women's unemployment;

7. Calls on the social partners to conclude a framework agreement on all forms of atypical work, including homework and teleworking in which women predominate, and calls on the Commission, should the social partners fail to reach agreement, to bring forward legislation covering all atypical employment;

8. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to assess the impact of the social economy on women's employment in quantitative and qualitative terms;

9. Reiterates its call for the Commission to submit a proposal for a Framework Directive on childcare services in Member States, with a view to ensuring a basic minimum of affordable, high quality care provision in all Member States, with flexible and extended hours and not restricted to pre-school children but providing full-time services for children of school age and believes that this should be extended to cover all dependant care services;

10. Calls on the Member States and the social partners in the Member States to take action on parental leave and to give preference to measures which make the taking up of parental leave attractive to both men and women, with proper payment for the period and the maintenance of social security rights;

11. Supports the concept of a period of leave to bring up children or look after dependent family members, with the period during which workers interrupt their careers to raise their children or look after an aged person being recognised for pension-entitlement purposes, so ensuring that they are not penalised for carrying out their family responsibilities;

12. Reiterates its call for the individualisation of rights to social protection, given that the use of household income to determine entitlement to certain benefits, including unemployment protection, can oblige women to leave the labour market where the marginal gain from a second income does not outweigh loss of benefit and extra costs involved with returning to work;

13. Stresses that training in companies must take account of women's needs in the timing and venues of the training and provide adequate child care, and that all efforts must be made to direct such training at both part-time and full-time employees;

14. Urges the Commission and Member States to ensure that vocational training programmes go hand in hand with measures to desegregate the labour market and calls for training to be targeted at sectors where jobs are available; calls for the potential of undertakings in the cooperative, mutual and non-profit sector to be exploited as a source of flexible and concrete training opportunities;

15. Believes that the Employment Guidelines need to be extended to ensure that women as well as young people are especially equipped to adapt to technological and economic changes and with skills relevant to the changing labour market;

16. Calls on the Commission and Member States, when allocating funding for vocational training, to match the relative unemployment levels of women and men; calls for training programmes aimed at the unemployed to be made available also to women who are not registered unemployed but would like to work;

17. Calls on Member States, in executing their Structural Funds programmes, to ensure that projects provide employment to women in proportion to their levels of unemployment in the region in question, develop those sectors in which women are traditionally active, particularly in remote areas, and facilitate women's access to sectors dominated by men;

18. Calls on Member States to improve transparency and accountability as regards compliance with the Structural Funds Regulations concerning equal opportunities and to give a systematic breakdown of spending targeted at women; calls for the new Structural Funds Regulations to include clear obligations with incentives for Member States which implement equal opportunities programmes and penalties for those who fail to promote them;

19. Calls on the Member States, in the framework of structural policy and recognising the scope for improving equal opportunities, to make available resources for the establishment of extensive childcare facilities and centres for the care of the elderly;

20. Regrets that there is no horizontal approach to equal opportunities policy in all European employment directives; regrets also that most Member States in their employment plans have paid little attention to equal opportunities policy for men and women; considers that the situation of women on the employment market can be advanced efficiently only if the mainstreaming principle is integrated in all employment directives and calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to take action in this area in the evaluation and adjustment of the employment directives; expresses concern that no quantified targets or timetables are included in the National Action Plans for increasing women's participation in the labour market;

21. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise the importance of job creation to women's entrepreneurship by encouraging and developing initiatives, such as special loan facilities for women setting up small businesses;

22. Considers it essential to assess the potential impact on women of all measures taken to implement the Employment Guidelines; calls therefore for gender expertise to be involved in follow up to and evaluation of the National Action Plans presented at the Cardiff European Council and in the elaboration of future Employment Guidelines;

23. Calls for future guidelines to include appropriate affirmative action to encourage women's employment, in order to overcome traditional cultural resistance to the entry of women into the labour market and in line with the provisions of Article 141 of the Treaty of Amsterdam;

24. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States in the next Employment Guidelines to include ambitious benchmark targets with quantified objectives and clear timetables and budgetary resources for implementation on:

- reducing drastically the gender gap in unemployment;

- women's full participation in the labour market and reduction in horizontal and vertical segregation;

- qualified provision, at prices affordable in relation to the family income, of care for children, relatives and dependent persons;

- participation of women in training and in measures for reinsertion in the labour market;

- equal access for men and women to part-time work, career breaks and parental leave in all sectors of activity;

- eliminating the gender gap in earnings;

and considers that these quantified benchmarks should be based on the average of the three most successful Member States;

25. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the European social partners.