Employment & Social Inclusion Moreover, CECOP will be particularly attentive to the proposals guaranteeing Quality Jobs for All.
Worker and social cooperatives are characterized not only by their capacity to create but also to retain good-quality jobs, providing workers with strong job security, voice and representation, work-life balance, skills development and career opportunities within the enterprise[2].
CECOP is ready for a fruitful collaboration especially on the new industrial strategy and SMEs strategy. Industrial cooperatives are perfect partners to guarantee social and employment benefits from the industrial transformation. Thereupon, we strongly regret the restricted approach of the announced action plan for the social economy for 2021, focusing only on education, health, energy, housing, social services and work integration of disadvantaged groups, which are certainly important components but fails to integrate that social economy enterprises are present and provide jobs in all sectors of activity, including industry.
Fair Working Conditions, including access to social protection, should be guaranteed to all workers, regardless of their employment status. Cooperatives can provide responses to challenges linked to non-standard work, such as precariousness, poor working conditions and isolation, as it is demonstrated in our latest report “All For One”[3]. The cooperative laboratory for new forms of work and employment suggests several possible scenarios which might allow us to embrace the future of work where flexibility and digitalization would be at the service of workers and have a positive impact on society. This is particularly the case of platform cooperatives, which give ownership and controlling power to the very people who use and work through online platforms.
As promoters of social Europe, we are keen to collaborate with the European Commission on cooperatives contribution to fight poverty and social exclusion. Social cooperatives provide European citizens with basic services essential for a dignified life through a corporate model that is particularly equitable, democratic, participatory and inclusive of all stakeholders, and are thereby able to reduce social inequalities.
CECOP President Giuseppe Guerini reacted to the Communication: “The European Commission’s announcements are very ambitious and mostly in line with our political priorities. We look forward to contributing with our expertise to several initiatives because cooperatives in industry and services meet many economic, societal and democratic needs by taking up the challenges of the future of work with a human approach and by bringing democracy at work. With our business model, we are fit to embrace the opportunities given by environmental and technological transitions making sure to leave no one behind”.
