National Guidelines in Portugal - National Plan for Employment (PNE - Plano Nacional de Emprego)

The PNE has been drafted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. It is a general outline of the goals and objectives of the Ministry for 2002 onwards. The PNE has been adopted by the Council of Ministers.

The PNE is based on the EU guidelines in the field of employment. It applies these guidelines to the Portuguese reality. The document is organised in two parts. The first part gives a general overview of the employment situation in Portugal and explains the framework in which the Plan is expected to take place. The second part is a more specific analysis of the "four pillars" that are guidelines to the European strategy for employment.

Equality of opportunity constitutes the fourth pillar of the PNE. It is interesting to note that the Plan underlines that gender discrimination in the workplace is a corollary of gender discrimination in family life, thus both must be tackled together. The Plan also indicates the necessity for a change of mentalities in order to eliminate the old-fashioned stereotypes that still restrict equality between the sexes.

More specifically, the PNE outlines the major "strategic and coordinated actions" that must be undertaken to foster equality at work:

1. increasing the awareness of the general public towards gender issues;
2. strengthening of the rights of male workers as fathers, so that female workers are given the possibility to balance their life more effectively;
3. training for male and female workers to get transversal competencies in different areas of life;
4. training and fostering for specific qualifications in the sectors where a gender is underrepresented;
5. fostering the introduction of equality plans in organisations;
6. deepening of the social dialogue and encouragement of collective bargaining on gender issues;
7. strengthening studies and assessment of practices put in place by previous National Employment Plans.

Other more specific objectives are outlined in the plan in relation to the actual situation in Portugal. For instance, the necessity to fight against discrimination in salaries is recognised. Other examples include the training of social negotiators to discuss gender issues, the creation of gender units in several government bodies, the integration of information on gender issues in public education, etc.