Social cooperatives: "We can do it!"

‘Si puo fare’ (in english means: "We can do it") is an Italian comedy made by Giulio Manfredonia. The film tells the story of Nello, a Milanese businessman who in the 1980s, is thrown into being the manager of a social cooperative in which workers are mentally disabled. These people are asked to carry out lighter tasks to keep them busy. Going against the advice of the doctors, Nello proves little by little that each patient, even not possessing all the mental faculties, has his place in the society thanks to work.

Si puo fare presents the experience of a social cooperative like many others that exist in Italy. The emergence of these types of businesses began in the 70s but it was in 1991 that the official recognition of social cooperation appeared in the law 381, which developed the form of the social cooperative which took into account their ligitimate development, with a few changes and omposing some limits, as the social cooperative form was constituted independently. This law establishes the originality of the Italian Cooperation.

This constitutes a new type of cooperative, categorised as "social", which are described as two types: the cooperatives that manage social services, health and education, called type A, and those who perform professional integration activities for disadvantaged people, called type B.

At world level CICOPA stresses that the most distinctive characteristic of social cooperatives is that they look for a mission of general interest, through the production of goods and services of general interest, and integration into the workplace is one of its primary missions.

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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.