Spp_c Regional Seminar Paris Minutes

COOPERATIVES EUROPE - Social Partner Program: Consolidation REGIONAL SEMINAR PARIS – FRANCE

14-15 January 2009 List of participants: Gianna Perra – Confcooperative Thierry Weishaupt – Fegapei Marcel Bartholomi – FGTB (MWB) Martin Pesser – FGTB (MWB) Vincent Nelis – FGTB (MWB) Chrystel Giraud-Dumaire – GNC Stanislaw Sledziewski – NCC Bogdan Bubak – NCC Adam Piechowski – NCC Malgorzata Skarzynska – OPZZ Elisabeth Bost – Coopaname Marie-France Boutroue – CGT Marc Noel – Cooperatives Europe Mirko Nodari – Cooperatives Europe Ray Collins – Cooperatives Europe Jean-François Hoffelt – Febecoop Michel Porta – Usgeres / CG Scop Jean Gautier – (former) CG Scop Jean Bienaimé – FNCC Jean-Philippe Milesy – Rencontres Sociales Pierre-Yves Chanu – CGT Agnes Mathis – Cooperatives Europe Etienne Pflimlin – Credit Mutuel Rainer Schlüter – Cooperatives Europe Christine Welschen – IDEES

The fourth and last of the regional seminars took place in Paris the 14 th and 15th January 2009 and grouped the Western and Central European countries France, Belgium and Poland. Representatives of the co-operative organisations and trade unions of the countries concerned were invited to present the situation of the social dialogue and industrial relations in their countries and how a closer co-operation could be further developed.

Introduction & review of the previous seminars Etienne Pflimlin, president of the Credit Mutuel and co-president of Cooperatives Europe, welcomed the participants to this seminar. He stressed the importance of the subject, especially in the actual economic situation, with the social dialogue having an important role to play.

Rainer Schlüter, Director of Cooperatives Europe and animator of this regional seminar, introduced the subject. He stated that some of the European sector organisations are involved within the European sector social dialogue, but maybe sometimes they are not visible enough as they might not defend a different position from the other employer organisations. Therefore, the question of whether the co-operatives are different or not at the national level, with their specificities expressed in the social dialogue, is an important one. This is why the regional seminars are being organised; it gives the occasion to see how the co-operative organisations deal with the social dialogue in the different countries, and what the added value of their direct involvement is. For example in the Nordic countries, co-operative organisations establish, in co-operation with the trade unions, different working mechanisms. The best practices at national level can indeed be of great help by bringing them to a European level. Gianna Perra, Head of the International Relations Department of Confcooperative - Italy, gave a brief review of the regional seminar which took place in Rome the 11th and 12th November 2008. Participants from Portugal, Spain, Malta, Slovenia and Italy gathered to exchange views on their relations and the specificities of their national social dialogue. In Malta, for instance, the trade unions have adopted a not so conventional role by supporting the co-operative development in the country and being a real partner in that process. In Spain and Portugal, the social dialogue takes essentially place at a regional level, with a strong involvement of the co-operative organisations. In Slovenia, the cooperative movement has been restructuring its organisation during the last years, so the social dialogue has only just started. In Italy, the co-operative organisations are very active in this field, and the confederations have signed several collective agreements with the trade unions. Ray Collins, animator of the regional seminar in Cyprus, explained that the reality in the southern and eastern European countries is very heterogeneous, as the countries present have also very different histories and have experienced diverse co-operative development. Present at the seminar was Cyprus, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria. In Cyprus, the social dialogue between the co-operative organisations and the trade unions is very strong; during a merger process of the different small local cooperative banks, the trade unions and the banks agreed on a process without any dismissals. Because of this agreement, the trade unions have supported the process, and the merger happened without any employee losing their job. In Greece, the co-operative organisations are also present in the national social dialogue as a distinctive co-operative employer organisation. In the Czech Republic, the co-operatives have a strong voice within the national intersectoral social dialogue, even though there is no specific strategy for them, as they participate as other employer organisations do. In Hungary, the cooperative organisations are essentially present within 3 sectors, whereas social dialogue is only beginning to develop in Bulgaria. Marc Noel explained that the Nordic regional seminar gave very interesting outcomes. In the Nordic countries Sweden and Denmark, the co-operatives have strong relations with the trade unions and they were in fact the ones who started to build up step by step the relations with the trade unions. They concluded for example an agreement on the issue of conflict-solving, giving the workers and employers the possibility to resolve the conflicts in front of an arbitration court. In Finland, the co-operative organisations participate within the social dialogue as any other employer organisation; the agreements concluded within the social dialogue are binding agreements, including a multitude of themes. In the Baltic countries, the social dialogue faces as a main problem the weakness of the different social partners. The membership in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia is around 15 per cent for the trade unions and less than 20 per cent concerning the employer organisations, with very often loose structures co-ordinating the activities. The main issue in these countries is thus to reinforce the social partners and to really start a social dialogue.

Rainer Schlüter explained that examples of good practices of social dialogue are very important. In the United Kingdom for instance, an objective of the social dialogue where the co-operative organisations are directly involved is to reduce the social repercussions of the current crisis to a minimum. Some reflections on the EU situation Thierry Weishaupt, representative of the Fegapei, which is the federation of the associations of establishments and services for persons with a disability, explained that his organisation is also trying to carry out a mapping at the European level, to understand the implications of this sector within the social dialogue. Such associations have of course specific issues being important for them within the dialogue, and the mapping wants therefore to learn more about these in the field of workers having a disability or employees working with disabled persons. Further, he underlined the importance of an activity and a presence at the European level, but the difficulty is to find the right partners and to integrate this aspect into the dialogue to ensure that some attention is paid to it. There are even some countries where the co-operative enterprises are the dominant form in this sector of activity. Rainer underlined that the CEEP – which regroups not only public enterprises but also the ones with an objective of services of general interest – has therefore some similarities with Cooperatives Europe, as co-operatives also serve the interests of their members. It is also known that the CEEP is looking to enlarge itself, as the public enterprises part is shrinking considerably. CECOP for example, which is one of the European co-operative sector organisations, has a lot of its members being enterprises of professional integration. Marie-France Boutroue, representative of the French Trade Union CGT, asked Thierry Weishaupt if they act as an employer organisation within the social dialogue. Thierry Weishaupt affirmed that the organisation acts on the employer side, in a partnership with the CEEP, as they would otherwise never have received the right to participate directly as a federation of disabled persons.

EU national situations Belgium Jean François Hoffelt, president of the National Committee of Co-operatives (CNC) and Secretary General of Febecoop, stated that there are more than 20.000 co-operative enterprises established in Belgium, but only about 600, namely those registered within the CNC, are true co-operatives, meaning that they function according to certain principles. This situation is due to a particularity of the Belgium law, as it doesn’t recognize the specificities of the co-operative enterprise. He mentioned also the importance to distinguish between consultation and negotiation. In Belgium, the social dialogue at the federal level is essentially built up on consultations, while at the regional level mainly a dialogue takes place but this is subject to a steady evolution. At the national level, the social dialogue takes place mainly within the national work council or the economic central council. The main form of this dialogue is a bipartite one. The co-operative organisations are on both sides of the social dialogue in Belgium. On the one hand, they are on the employer side, and on the other hand, depending on the thematic issue being considered, they are on the employee side. The agricultural co-

operatives for example are mostly on the employers’ side, whereas the consumer cooperatives are on the trade union side during the dialogue. At a national intersectoral level, the inter-professional agreements are negotiated between the trade unions and the employer organisations. In that case, the co-operatives are represented on the employers’ side. The government is often the notary in this dialogue, being a tripartite one then, because it is financing part of the agreements. The issues being discussed at a local level can of course be discussed also at a regional level, and be the subject of collective agreements, but this is a steady evolution. Rainer Schlüter stressed that besides the different levels of negotiation and consultation, a new level was appearing, that being the partnership approach. This is a new behaviour which is happening more often between co-operative organisations and trade unions, a model which could be elevated to the European level. Marcel Bartholomi stated that the global economic system is not in a good shape. The financial crisis is an outcome of that and makes the need for research into new best practices necessary. For the co-operative movement, which is an alternative to the common way of doing business, the participation within the social dialogue is therefore crucial. There are very often misunderstandings; the conventions which are present in an enterprise need to be followed by the employers but when it comes to workers’ participation, the trade unions have their difficulties in understanding this modus. In Belgium, the situation is also very much influenced by the relation between the north and the south. In the southern part, the average income is much lower as it is the industrialised part of the country. If we take the case of a co-operative enterprise, we know where the added value and power comes from, namely from the co-operators, which is different in a usual enterprise, where it is often not known who takes the decisions. Therefore, the producer co-operatives need to demonstrate and underline their good practices. Conventions are signed, because persons want to negotiate between themselves and agree on certain values. These conventions have to be taken at local level, and then going up to the regional or national levels. Co-operatives should, as a good example of the distribution of power, co-operate closer with the trade unions. Poland Adam Piechowski from the National Cooperative Council stated that Poland is “behind” other EU member states in the matter of social dialogue. In the Polish legislation, social dialogue is under article 20 and as such is seen as a basis of the Polish Republic. There exists even a law on the tripartite commission. Before 1989, there had been a complete absence of social dialogue in the country. Since then, different levels of dialogue have developed; the first partner in Poland is the government. On the trade union side, the most famous is ‘solidarnosz’, with its 900 000 members. OPZZ is the second largest union. On the employers’ side the confederation of private employers is the largest partner; it had been the state previously. The co-operative craft organisation is part of this confederation. Nowadays, the NCC represents 500.000 employers. It takes part within the social dialogue with an observer status; the NCC is considered as the other associations or the NGOs. The first issue to work on within the social dialogue was the housing sector developing initiatives to get access to European funds to support this initiative. Unfortunately, the NCC has little influence as an observer.

Today, the social dialogue doesn’t really work properly in Poland. Therefore, the government wants to renew it and is trying to find out what the obstacles within the social dialogue are. Therefore, it is not only the weak participation of the co-operatives in the social dialogue which poses a problem but it is also the social dialogue itself being weak. The major obstacles to a strong social dialogue can though be defined as the absence of a real mechanism, the importance of which is not very well known and the procedures being not well defined. Part of the reasons for this can of course be explained by the very recent implementation of the dialogue. The local dialogue from a co-operative point of view is very usual, as the importance of the co-operative enterprises is well known in many parts of the country. In some local communities they represent the only employer; at that level, the social dialogue is a very informal dialogue. At a regional level, the main institutions are the VOIVODS. The NCC passes through the VOIVODS to be integrated within the social dialogue at that level. At a national level, the NCC takes part within the tripartite dialogue and not at the sectorlevel consultations. This has been the case for example on the issue of the monitoring committees. At the international level, the NCC had its first experience in 2002, when it joined with 2 representatives the governmental delegation for the negotiations within the social dialogue. It can be said that the main obstacles which the NCC is facing today are: - The cooperative movement is not yet recognised as a social partner - The working relations between the trade unions and the government are still quite weak Therefore, the need persists to create federations of co-operative employers which can be full social partners. Recognition of the co-operative movement as a social partner at the EU level would be a strong message to all the states, especially to the more recent member states. Malgorzata Skarzynska, representative of the trade union OPZZ, added that the initiative of Cooperatives Europe, to reinforce the co-operation between co-operatives and trade unions is a very important issue. This dialogue can also help to improve the common image of the co-operative enterprises which are considered very often as only being the remains of the communist period.