ABSTRACT
This chapter examines briefly the legal framework for equal opportunities in Europe. It provides evidence to show that both for the topics where the EC and the associated countries have accepted a common legal framework. The chapter deals with measures introduced by employers which address the under-representation of certain groups in their workforce. Workforce monitoring, at least in Anglo-American approaches to equality programmes, is an essential part of identifying discrimination or under-representation in the workforce and in measuring progress where positive action programmes have been introduced. The chapter examines in turn the offer of flexible working hours, part-time employment and job sharing, training courses for women returners, parental leave and career breaks and finally workplace childcare. The low level of monitoring shows both the continued hostility of Danish employers and trade unions to institutionalised means of regulating workplace relations, and that an absence of direct equal opportunities programmes is not necessarily a sign of a lower commitment to equality.
