EMPLOYMENT IN WORKER COOPERATIVESIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SPANISH COOPERATIVE LAW

Abstract

Workers’ cooperatives are created to provide jobsfortheir worker-owners. It is a formula enablinga group of people to obtain employment undera cooperative systemthrough the creation of a jointly-owned company withdemocratic management,acompany thatcan specialise inrendering any service or producingany good, as long as theprinciples of the cooperative are not violated.However, some legal systems allow for the presence of salariedemployees who are workersincooperativeswithout beingmembers. Inthis case, the working relationship between the cooperative and those employees is governed by ordinarylabour law, known tobea field of law that developedin the sphere of the capital-labour conflict.In such acase, the cooperative is considered an ordinary employer;i.e., a common capitalist enterprise. This situatesus before the paradox that,in the nineteenth century,workers'cooperatives were designed to surmountthe exploitation suffered by wage-earners, whilein the 21st century,we find-at least in form -the capital-labour relationship within these same cooperatives.In this regard, the question of employees’ working conditions is also of interest,bearing in mind that a distinction must be drawn between the working conditions of the two groups mentioned above: member employees and salaried employees.