“Employment sustainability is also reflected in the management of the company that produces it”

Isabelle Durant, Vice-President of the European Parliament and MEP (EFA / The Greens), has agreed to answer the questions of "Work Together" on the occasion of this special issue on sustainable employment. Isabelle Durant aspires to a more social Europe.

Question: The concept of sustainable employment is totally absent in European policies. This concept is the main mission of cooperatives and companies run by their workers and represented by CECOP. However, according to you, how can sustainable employment be defined?

Answer: Employment sustainability is not only a contractual issue for workers who practice it (ideally with an open-ended contract) but also a question of purpose and influence of the activity to which it contributes in its territorial, economic, physical, and human environment. Sustainability is also reflected in the management of a company that produces it: a prudent management, who anticipates and controls its expansion and who invests in human capital of training for all its workers.

Q.: Have you ever been aware of cooperatives as a citizen or as an MEP and in which way?

A.: Absolutely. Here at the European Parliament, several cooperatives, especially those focused on agriculture and food production fields, contact us regarding some aspects of the forthcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In a trade where individual producers’ income is isolated and placed in jeopardy structurally, the organisation into workers’ cooperatives, where workers run their own companies, turns out to be particularly appropriate and adequate. In this troubled sector, adequacy, should lead us to analyse the usage and promotion of a model like this one not only in sectors undergoing restructuring or due to company closure, but also in areas of small innovative firms, allowing the creation of new jobs.

Q.: The takeover of companies in crisis or without heirs by their workers has already saved many jobs in Europe. Don’t you find that this method should be taken more into account in European policies?

A.: It is regrettable that the 2020 strategy, without exclude it formally, considers this method of recovery by the workers just as a stopgap...

Q.: The vast majority of cooperatives have so far shown a better resistance to the crisis compared with average companies from the same sectors and the same countries. Do you believe that their governance and management system has something to do with this?

A.: It’s obvious that companies from sectors more touched by competition and that, because of this reason, have developed short-term strategies for surviving to a wild dumping are those that are more threatened.

Q.: Finally, if you wished to create a cooperative, which would be its main activity?

A.: I have already participated and I am member of a housing cooperative for social purposes, offering a dozen of associations working in the social fields of premise shared services, a common work ethic, a knowledge platform and services. If I had to create another, it would be based on the field of art production (cinema, theatre, image, new technologies): I am convinced that in this matter which cannot be conceived without a real human commitment, without a guideline that makes sense; there is a huge need for sharing strategies and resources.

BIO EXPRESS

- 1994-1999: Co-president of the Ecolo party in Belgium
- 1999-2003: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility and Transport in the Belgian government of Guy Verhofstadt
- 2004-2009: re-elected as Co-president of the Ecolo party
- 2009: elected MEP (EFA / The Greens) and Vice-President of the European Parliament

Interview conducted by Olivier Biron, CECOP

Follow us: FacebookTwitterYouTube
Subscribe to our newsletter:
CECOP / CICOPA Europe
An initiative of the European Confederation of Workers’ Cooperatives,
Social Cooperatives and Social and Participative Enterprises
© CECOP CICOPA Europe - xhtml / css valid website - Disclaimer - Contact Us
What is a cooperative

Cooperatives a sustainable employment solution!

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.

Enterprises represented by CECOP are enterprises in which workers unite to satisfy their needs in terms of creation of sustainable jobs. They can be industrial enterprises or services rooted in the territories and having a long-term strategy. They are a genuine solution for sustainable jobs in Europe: they are broken down into workers’ cooperatives, social cooperatives and other types of enterprises owned by their workers.

Workers’ cooperatives: Workers’ cooperatives are enterprises subject to the same restrictions of competition, management and profitability as other companies. Their originality lies in the fact that their workers hold the majority of the shares, at least 51%. In doing so, the workers decide jointly on the major guidelines of their enterprises and appoint their leaders (managers, boards of directors, etc.). They also decide on how to share the profit with a twofold aim: to give the preference to the workers of the enterprises, in the form of refunds based on the work done and to consolidate the enterprises with a view to handing it over onto the future generations, i.e. creating reserves to reinforce the equity and ensuring thereby the sustainability of their enterprises. In all cooperatives, the internal democratic control is based on the principle of “one man, one vote” whatever the capital share held by the respective workers. Finally, the cooperative spirit promotes its employees information and training, a prerequisite to develop the autonomy, the motivation and responsibility, accountability required in an economic world which has become insecure. (Source: www.scop.coop)

Social cooperatives: Social cooperatives are specialised in the provision of social services or reintegration of disadvantaged and marginalised workers (disabled, long-term unemployed, former detainees, addicts, etc.). A large number of such cooperatives have been set up in Italy but also in other EU countries. Most of them are owned by their workers while offering the possibility or providing for the obligation (according to the national laws) to involve other types of members (users, voluntary workers, etc.).

Other types of enterprises owned by their workers: There are other types of enterprises owned by their workers such as for example the “Sociedades Laborales” in Spain which are real driving forces of economic and social activities which have contributed to lower the unemployment level and to revamp a sustained growth in Spain.