Translation of "Info-Age - La place du travail dans la vie des hommes " (French → English) :

Stresses the importance of promoting the professional recognition of the skills and qualifications of domestic workers and carers in this sector in order to provide them with more prospects for professional development, as well as specific training for individuals working with elderly people and children, with a view to fostering the creation of quality jobs leading to quality employment and better working conditions, including the provision of formal contracts, access to training and better social recognition; recognises the importa ...[+++]nce of ensuring the validation and certification of acquired skills, qualifications and experience and promoting career development; considers the establishment of training and retraining courses to be of fundamental importance in order to achieve this.

During Researchers' Night, scientists from all disciplines take over public spaces – shopping malls, squares, historic monuments, parks, and museums - to show people of all ages how their work impacts on daily life.

The salient points on the social side concerned the contexts of: employment, where -the priority given in national policies to the creation of jobs and on the role of employment as an essential factor of integration were stressed; -the summit also gave prominence to the promotion of the fundamental rights and interests of workers through respect of the ILO Conventions on the banning of forced and child labour, the freedom of workers to organise and bargain collectively and the principle of non-discrimination; -in addition, the countries represented were urged to encourage the estab ...[+++]lishment of employer/employee relations in their national legislations; poverty, for which: - the structural causes were recognised along with the need for a multi- dimensional approach involving the poor themselves; - a commitment was received from all the countries to announce as soon as possible national plans to reduce all forms of poverty and to eradicate absolute poverty; prevention of exclusion, for which: - the role and importance of society in general in the preparation, implementation and monitoring of social policy were acknowledged; - the need for access for everyone to basic social services such as health care and education was recognised; equal opportunities for men and women, where: - the role and importance of the involvement of women in social, political, cultural and economic life were highlighted as part of the lead-up to the fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing; human rights, where: - respect for all human rights and for democracy as essential elements in development were explicitly and unequivocally acknowledged.

ANNEX I RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL AND OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MEMBER STATES, MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL, of ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF OLDER WORKERS "THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MEMBER STATES, MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Whereas demographic changes are causing the job situation of older workers to become a matter of concern in most European countries; Whereas those changes will have major economic and social consequences for expenditure to improve the functioning of the job market, the financing of retirement pensions and the balance of the ag ...[+++]e pyramids within undertakings; Whereas Governments, social partners and undertakings should anticipate those changes by placing emphasis on, for example, part-time work, the adjustment of working conditions and vocational training throughout the working life; Having regard to the action already put in hand by Member States in those areas notably in order to eliminate any obstacles to the employment of older workers; Whereas certain early retirement schemes have resulted in several Member States in instability for older workers who have received compensation under varied and changing schemes, and have led to a loss of know-how in undertakings; whereas abolition of official early-retirement schemes would not stem the spate of ever earlier withdrawals from the job market observed in certain Member States; Whereas many Member States have introduced phased retirement schemes, thereby enabling the changeover by older workers to part-time work to be offset by recruitment of persons in difficulty on the job market and young workers; Whereas the organization of work must take into account productivity requirements; Whereas it is important to take account of the availability of financial resources, national priorities and balances within national systems; Whereas account should be taken of ...

It welcomed the wealth of ideas contained in those guidelines, particularly on the subjects of stepping up policies to prevent long-term unemployment, introducing overall strategies for active ageing, lifelong learning, combating all forms of employment discrimination, tackling undeclared work, lending greater weight to the local and regional approach, with all involved locally acting in partnership, and promoting equal opportuniti ...[+++]es for men and women.

The key priorities areas are: investing in education and training to foster youth employment; developing gender equality policies; combating the intergenerational transmission of poverty and social exclusion; increasing the labour market participation of older persons; promoting equal opportunity measures supporting better conditions for families and child raising; developing non-discrimination policies; and promoting the effective use of available budget and financing instruments in order to ensure the greatest value for money.