A.--7

(3) In all oases in which military service, raw material shortages, enemy action, or other war circumstances, have prevented young persons from entering or continuing apprenticeship, arrangements should be made to encourage them, as soon as circumstances permit, to resume their apprenticeship or to learn a skilled trade. (4) With a view to encouraging the resumption of interrupted apprenticeships, arrangements should be made to review the provisions of apprenticeship contracts and to vary them where this seems equitable to take account of training, skill or experience acquired during war service. (5) Existing apprenticeship programmes should be re-examined, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organizations, with a view to giving wider opportunities to learn a skilled trade to the younger workers who have not been able, owing to the war, to enter apprenticeship. More particularly, consideration should be given to making arrangements for varying existing restrictions on admission to apprenticeship and for taking into account any training, skill or experience acquired during the war. 34. Employers should be encouraged to introduce programmes of systematic in-plant training to enable all the young workers employed in the undertaking to acquire training or to improve their skill and broaden their knowledge of the operations of the undertaking as a whole. Such programmes should be developed in co-operation with workers' organizations and should be adequately supervised. 35. In countries which have been invaded during the war, and in which there are young persons who have been compelled to abstain from work, or, without regard to their aptitudes or desires, to work for the enemy, special attention should be devoted to the readjustment of such young persons to work habits and to supplementing their vocational training. IX. Employment op Women 36. The redistribution of women workers in the economy should be organized on the principle of complete equality of opportunity for men and women on the basis of their individual merit, skill and experience, without prejudice to the provisions of the International Labour Conventions and Recommendations concerning the employment of women. 37. (1) In order to place women on a basis of equality with men in the employment market, and thus to prevent competition among the available workers prejudicial to the interests of both men and women workers, steps should be taken to encourage the establishment of wage rates based on job content, without regard to sex. (2) Investigations should be conducted, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organizations, for the purpose of establishing precise and objective standards for determining job content, irrespective of the sex of the worker, as a basis for determining wage rates. 38. The employment of women in industries and occupations in which large numbers of women have traditionally been employed should be facilitated by action to raise the relative status of these industries and occupations and to improve conditions of work and methods of placement therein. X. Employment op Disabled Workers 39. The criterion for the training and employment of disabled workers should be the employability of the worker, whatever the origin of the disability. 40. There should be the closest collaboration between medical services for the disabled and vocational rehabilitation and placement services. 41. Specialized vocational guidance for the disabled should be developed in order to make it possible to assess each disabled worker's capacity and to select the most appropriate form of employment for him. 42. (1) Wherever possible, disabled workers should receive training in company with able-bodied workers, under the same conditions and with the same pay. (2) Training should be continued to the point where the disabled person is able to enter employment as an efficient worker in the trade or occupation for which he has been trained. (3) Wherever practicable, efforts should be made to retrain disabled workers in their former occupations or in related occupations where their previous qualifications would be useful. (4) Employers with suitable training facilities should be induced to train a reasonableproportion of disabled workers. (5) Specialized training centres, with appropriate medical supervision, should be provided for those disabled persons who require such special training. 43. (1) Special measures should be taken to ensure equality of employment opportunity for disabled workers on the basis of their working capacity. Employers should be induced by wide publicity and other means, and where necessary compelled, to employ a reasonable quota of disabled workers. (2) In certain occupations particularly suitable for the employment of seriously disabled workers, such workers should be given preference over all other workers. (3) Efforts should be made, in close co-operation with employers' and workers' organizations, to overcome employment discriminations against disabled workers which are not related to their ability and job performance, and to overcome the obstacles to their employment including the possibility of increased liability in respect of workmen's compensation. (4) Employment on useful work in special centres under non-competitive conditions should be made available for all disabled workers who cannot be made fit for normal employment. 44. Information should be assembled by the employment service in regard to the occupations particularly suited to different disabilities and the size, location and employability of the disabled population.

55