PROPOSALS FOR BETTER GOVERNANCE IN WORKER COOPERATIVES

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to make a few contributions to designing a more appropriate legal framework for worker cooperatives. Cooperatives and Employment: a Global Reportpublished in 2014 by CICOPA and the Desjardins Group, provides the starting point for this article. I have analyzed from this study the characteristics of cooperative employment, their impact on the economic sustainability of cooperatives and the proposed recommendations.Iconsider the existence of a specific legal status for cooperative employment unfeasible. It is impossible to find unity in such different activities as salaried work and self-employed work, whether individual or collective. The idea that a worker member has the same status as a salaried worker cannot be accepted.We need to accept that a cooperative is a particular form of business organisation and that there are specific cooperative relationships which cannot be classified as work contracts, based precisely on the undertakings the worker enters into on becoming a member of the cooperative. Cooperatives should be governed by a specific and appropriate legal system that respects the cooperative principles and values and allows cooperatives to develop autonomously, always respecting the fundamental rights of the individual.