Spp_c Regional Seminar Rome Minutes

COOPERATIVES EUROPE - Social Partner Program: Consolidation REGIONAL SEMINAR ROME – ITALY

11th & 12th November 2008 List of participants: Gianna Perra – Confcooperative Felice Scalvini – Cooperatives Europe/Confcooperative Sabina Valentini – Confcooperative Silvia Frezza – Confcooperative Carlo Marignani – Legacoop Filippo Turi – AGCI Giuseppe Gizzi – AGCI Silvia Rimondi – AGCI Giuseppe Turi – UIL Carlo Pignocco – CISL Paul Chetcuti – Apex-Organisation of Maltese Co-operatives Rolan Micallef Attard - Apex-Organisation of Maltese Co-operatives Edwin Balzan – Union of United Workers (UHM) Barbara Kramžar – Primorsko svetovalno središče Slovenija Jadranka Vesel – Zdruzenje kooperativ Slovenija Karmen Potokar – Primorsko svetovalno središče Slovenija Marta Figueiredo – Confecoop Rogério Cação – Confecoop Carlos Trias Pinto – UNCCUE Ana Ceballo Herreros – UNCCUE Marco Cilento – ETUC & CISL Rainer Schlüter – Cooperatives Europe Marc Noel – Cooperatives Europe

The third out of the 4 regional seminars took place in Rome the 11th and 12th November 2008 and regrouped the Southern European countries Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Spain and Portugal. The objective of these regional seminars is to make a qualitative analysis of the experiences and added value provided by the co-operative enterprises and their employers’ organisations in the social dialogue with the trade unions. Representatives of the co-operative organisations and trade unions of the countries concerned are therefore invited to present the situation of the social dialogue and industrial relations in their countries and how it could be further developed.

Introduction Felice Scalvini, president of the CECOP-CICOPA, representative of Confcooperative and member of the Council of Cooperatives Europe, as well as animator of the seminar, welcomed the participants to this seminar. He underlined the pleasure to host this seminar in the beautiful city of Rome.

Felice Scalvini continued by presenting Cooperatives Europe as the European cross-sector organisation for cooperative enterprises. This umbrella organisation has been the result of a long process of getting together by different European sector organisations and the European national sector and cross-sector organisations. Today, Cooperatives Europe has its offices in the European Cooperative House in Brussels. Since the official start of its activities in November 2006, one of the first subjects to work on has been the social dialogue and the place and role cooperative enterprises are holding within it today. The social dialogue is a very important tool for all enterprises, and also for the cooperatives, having a quite distinct functioning from other private enterprises.

EU Social Dialogue Rainer Schlüter, director of Cooperatives Europe, thanked the Confcooperative for hosting this seminar. Before going into depth on the subject, he underlined the importance of Cooperatives Europe being a major employer organisation. There are more than 250.000 cooperative enterprises in Europe, coming from 6 major sectors, which are regrouped within Cooperatives Europe; these enterprises represent 5,4 million jobs. But today, cooperative enterprises are not represented as such within the European cross-sector social dialogue. Of course, this is also due to the fact that Cooperatives Europe is a very young organisation. But also due to the fact that the European cooperative sector organisations are not all present today within the European sector social dialogue. Further, Rainer Schlüter underlined, that it is not only about the social dialogue, but also about the fact of being consulted on issues of economic and social affairs. Therefore there are two steps: being recognized as a European social partner, in which process Cooperatives Europe is now, and then to think about and analyse how the European social dialogue could be joined and be part of the negotiations. Of course, this is not easy, as the other social partners are not so keen to get an additional social partner within their negotiations; this is certainly true for Business Europe, but also the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is not so enthusiastic. Of course, common points of interest have to be checked with the public sector and the trade unions, as the public sector includes also the enterprises providing services of general interest, a characteristic present also within the cooperatives. Rainer Schlüter continued by stating that it is clear though, that the demand has also to come first from the national level. There has to be a demand from both sides, the trade unions and the cooperative sector, in the different countries, and this social dialogue has to come along with some added value. For example, in the Nordic seminar, the Swedish case showed that the cooperative movement had a special agreement which resulted in a very low risk for strikes as the conflict resolving process has been constructed differently; this is why the fund which is usually foreseen for the strike situations can be used differently. That is also why the different national seminars are organised, to learn about the different procedures taken by cooperatives in the countries and analyse the added value of them. Marc Noël, responsible for Finance and Projects at Cooperatives Europe, highlighted the objectives of the "Social Partner Program - Consolidation" (SPP-C): this program, being part of the EU support program for social dialogue, and co-financed by the DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, aims to improve the qualitative knowledge about the contents of the social dialogue between co-operative enterprises and workers’ representation at different levels and in different countries of the European Union.

The Social Dialogue is an essential part of the European social model, being the main place for joint initiatives and negotiations between Trade Unions and Employer organisations. Therefore, this program is a priority for Cooperatives Europe, intending to become a social partner and participate within the EU cross-sector dialogue. Further, Marc Noël explained that the program is a follow-up of the successful previous Social Partner project. This program took place in 2006-2007, demonstrating the Representativeness and the participation in European sectoral & national SD by the members of Cooperatives Europe, which are the conditions for a European Employer organisation to become a European Social Partner. Further, the organisation must have the capacity to consult and have a mandate from its member organisations for the negotiations; conditions which have been verified in the first social partner program. As the European Commission consideried the SPP project to be an interesting and successful initiative it was requested to deepen the results of the first project and introduce the SPP-Consolidation program. The challenges for this new project are therefore to analyse the difference and added value provided by cooperative organisations, to focus on the work with trade unions and to determine the themes being discussed in the different national & European sector social dialogues. Additionally, counterparts for the social dialogue in the different countries have to be detected, a database of Trade Unionists & Co-operators has to be built up and a « SD Competence Group » has to be launched, being a reference group for SD topics related to cooperatives in Europe and supported by a guide on best practices and a quality report of the different countries. Felice Scalvini resumed the situation by stating that these regional seminars can be very useful to inform and learn about the social dialogue. The cooperative movement has to build on its differences, and therefore it has to rely on its differences and underline the added value it can bring into the social dialogue. The cooperative reality has to be shown and enhanced, and by that, the European presence of the cooperative system will be reinforced.

Country situations Rogério Cação, president of the Portuguese Confecoop, explained the situation of the social dialogue in Portugal, and the participation of the Cooperatives within it. The social dialogue started in 1984 between the main employer and worker organisations, but it really got off the ground in the nineties. The cooperative movement is very present in Portugal, and is organised in sector organisations. The Portuguese cooperatives represent nowadays about 5% of the PIB. The social dialogue is an important issue for decisions, and an important tool to get them realized. It is within the social and economic council, that the decisions are taken. While cooperatives communicate a lot between them, the communication with the other actors and the outside world of the cooperatives is missing. Therefore, the cooperative visibility has to be enhanced and shown to a broader public, not aware of it; the same is the case concerning the social dialogue. The relation with the trade unions though is very good, while the problem remains that the cooperators are at the same time the employers and employees, and the spaces of negotiations are therefore not always very clear; cooperators are not always interested to belong to a trade union or create a relation with them. Further, as already mentioned, these spaces of negotiation are sometimes also not developed enough, as the cooperatives fail to communicate in general with external partners, not belonging directly to their movement.

The cooperative sector organisations Confagri and Confecoop negotiate with the trade unions. Of course, both cooperate on this issue, and in order to have a single voice on some issues, an inter-cooperative forum has been created, a space where both come together to take common positions on certain issues. The debates about the social dialogue are though very important, and they should show similar lines between the cooperative enterprises and organisations, to reinforce the visibility of the cooperatives and re-underline their added value to the process. Carlos Trias Pinto from the Spanish cooperative consumer organisation UNCCUE, which groups 250 cooperative enterprises and has 350.000 members, explained that it has also two different types of cooperatives: the usual cooperative, in which the workers are the cooperators, and a mixed type, where also the consumers can be cooperators. The social dialogue in Spain is especially an issue treated at the regional and local levels. The CEPES, which is the umbrella organisation for the social economy in Spain, has worked a lot on this subject. The social dialogue is organised mostly on a tripartite level, within which the social economy sectors are an additional partner clearly distinguished from the other private employer organisations. The cooperatives are therefore present at different levels. They are also focusing rather on specific issues, as the working conditions, because it has been realised, that the cooperators have very limited knowledge on this theme; even though the working conditions are a fundamental aspect which should be known by the workers. The aim of the cooperative umbrella organisations is not only to better inform the cooperators, but also to reinforce the dialogue and the cooperation between the cooperatives. The codes of conduct are a guarantee of the labour and the social rights, but as in Portugal, the workers are not that well informed. Further, informing is a first step, but the cooperators are encouraged to participate actively in the elaboration of the codes. Ana Ceballo Herreros, representative of the UNCCUE, added that for the cooperatives, there has to be found some minimal common guidelines, as the cooperative enterprises have one characteristic being the same for al of them: they are 100% from the persons. For example, a feature which is a general attribute of these enterprises is their job security and quality of employment; compared to similar enterprises in the same branch of activity, the cooperatives offer much more job security. The social dialogue in Spain groups 3 main partners: the first one are the employer organisations, the second one the trade unions and the third one groups of all the other actors, under which the cooperatives are nowadays present. The relations between the trade unions and the cooperatives are quite good, but the contact is not so frequent, just as in Portugal. This is also mainly due to the fact that cooperators are employers and employees, and they do not take part in trade unions’ activities; so, there is not such a strong communication between them. Jadranka Vesel, from the Zdruzenje kooperativ Slovenija, stated that the cooperative movement became actually weaker during the last decades, not as in Spain or Portugal. The rate of employment within cooperative enterprises is 0.7% of the national total employment, which is the lowest rate in Europe. The cooperative movement has many problems which are also linked to its difficult history and the support for and participation within them is very low. The social services are for example today not in the hands of the social economy, but rather undertaken by private for profit enterprises, which leads to a real deterioration of these services offered.

Another problem the country faces in general is that the trade unions are neither very strong, and a social dialogue is therefore very difficult. The government doesn’t consider that there is a need for dialogue, as the unemployment rate is 5.3% which is considered to be low. Nowadays, the cooperatives are reorganising themselves in Slovenia, to get a stronger cohesion again. A note has been prepared by them for the new government, to urge for some necessary modifications within the legislation. The work which needs still to be done to show the cooperative difference is improving, and is a first step; a second one would be then to enhance the dialogue and more specifically the social dialogue and bring some added value through introducing the cooperative values. Paul Chetcuti from the Apex-Organisation of Maltese Co-operatives explained that the MCESD is the most important body for social dialogue in Malta. The Maltese Apex organisation, which will change its name soon into “Cooperatives Malta”, has contacted the 2 major trade unions of the country and actively tried to enhance the cooperation between trade unions and cooperatives. The UHM, major trade union, has always been very helpful to the development of cooperatives, while the other trade union unfortunately never replied. Nowadays, the Apex is lobbying strongly to get into the MCESD, to take actively part within the social dialogue by representing a different model of enterprise. Rolan Micallef Attard, representative of the Apex-Organisation of Maltese Co-operatives, added that the cooperative movement in Malta has similar problems to those in other countries. The problem is the communication to the outside of what a cooperative enterprise really is: education on the cooperative and the social economy in general is clearly missing in Malta. Further, it is also difficult to reinforce strongly the cooperative development, if it is a model completely absent at the political level. Therefore, one of the most important issues for the cooperative movement should be more efficient communication. Edwin Balzan, representative of the Union of United Workers (UHM), underlined the quality of the relations between the trade union and the cooperative Apex organisation. Developing the cooperative model became also one of the objectives of the trade union, as the jobs provided within them are stable ones. For example, different new acts had to be introduced into the Maltese legislation to be able to develop cooperative enterprises in other sectors, a process, which has been supported by and undertaken with the trade union. Sabina Valentini from the Italian cross-sector organisation Confcooperative explained that it is clear that the absence of cooperatives within the social dialogue can be sometimes explained because of the fact that they are between the two fronts of employees and employers, but for some issues, their presence is also even stronger. The social dialogue in Italy is quite complex: it is organised on a national level in a tripartite form. A violation of an agreement is breaking the industrial relations which have been convened. The system supports and develops now all these working regulations. The instruments though are bilateral; up to now, 16 agreements have been signed with the cooperative organisations. An example is an agreement with the taxi-drivers, for which Confcooperative has elaborated a first agreement with all the drivers concerning the rates. The social dialogue is therefore for sure the first solution to give an adequate response to the needs of the enterprises.

Carlo Pignocco, representative of the Italian trade union CISL, explained that the aim of a trade union is always to leverage good jobs and create better working conditions. The cooperatives provide high quality employment. Unfortunately, a major problem emerged during the last decades, which has been the creation of so called “fake cooperatives”. This has become an intense phenomenon in Italy, and the trade union along with the cooperative umbrella organisations is fighting this, as it harms strongly to the cooperative image and as the working conditions are rather poor. The trade union became a very active player in shutting down these cooperatives. Often, the job description doesn’t correspond neither to the real task, and an audit to resolve this problem has been created, and monitoring centres are probably the next step. Of course, the relationships between cooperatives and trade unions can still be developed; the role for example of a trade union is traditionally to be a counterpart, but in the work with the cooperative enterprises, it should become – and this is more and more the case - for some issues a partner. The future social dialogue in cooperatives must face these difficulties and a stronger partnership is therefore certainly possible. Carlo Marignani, representative of Legacoop, stated that M. Pignocco and Ms Valentini have already illustrated the Italian situation of the Social Dialogue perfectly, in particular the relation between co-operatives and trade unions. It is clear that collaboration between cooperative organisations and trade unions offers great possibilities, in particular in such a difficult period as the one we are experiencing nowadays. In the Italian social dialogue, the relationship between cooperatives and trade unions reflects the same problems which affect the Italian social dialogue in general. Worker organizations should succeed in building more pen relations to the Italian cooperative enterprises. The sector where this challenge can be best measured is the one of the worker cooperatives; in this field much has already been done, but there is still much to do: that dialogue needs to be resumed in order to create an effective partnership which can effectively respond to problems and the actual crisis. Giuseppe Turi, representative of the Italian trade union UIL, explained that Cooperative organisations and trade unions have common principles and roots. For example Fon.coop is an excellent case which shows how cooperatives and trade unions can work together. Fon.coop used to be a more general institute which gathered together the Italian cooperative organizations Legacoop, Confcooperative, AGCI and the worker organizations CGIL, CISL and UIL: Coopform. It was created about 15 years ago, when a new law for the promotion of life long learning was issued; that law allowed enterprises to decide to give money devoted to life long learning activities to this fund instead of transferring it to regional public administrations. It is important to highlight that Coopform – a collaboration between cooperatives and trade unions – was the first fund to be officially recognized among the three which had been foreseen by the law. Giuseppe Gizzi, representative of the AGCI, explained that Marignani referred to the fact that cooperatives produce 7% of the Italian GDP. Besides, cooperatives have an anticyclical function: while all the sectors are currently showing negative results, cooperatives can still register a substantial positive growth. Responding to Pignocco, who asked whether cooperatives are counterparts or partners, he affirmed that cooperatives are partners in situations where people work well together, for example for the creation of regional observatories, which are the highest expression of collaboration between cooperative organizations and trade unions. Taking these best practices as a starting point, it becomes clear that much can be done.

Marco Cilento, representative of the Italian CISL and the European Trade Union Confederation, made some observations: the fact that Cooperatives Europe is new, makes it of course necessary to manage firstly the diversity of these cooperative realities. If Cooperatives Europe achieves this, it would make of it a very representative and strong partner. Of course, there are many common points of interest between trade unions and cooperatives, which is due to the inherent functioning of the cooperative enterprises. A collaboration at EU level is of course important as well, as directives and norms are created at that level; however, as it has already been discussed today, all the representative organisations want to sit at that table, but some steps have to be taken before that, even though they have already been started by Cooperatives Europe. Concerning the mandate a representative European employer organisation has to get for the negotiations, it doesn’t have to be a continuous one. There must be a mechanism for Cooperatives Europe to obtain the mandate on punctual occasions, when needed. But much more important is also how to transfer it to a national level, as other social partners are more cohesive, which is not the case for the European cooperatives. An important question is therefore, how the integration of an agreement can be undertaken successfully.

Some conclusions and further steps Rainer Schlüter underlined that the question coming from the Commission, and also from the other social partners is clear: what is the added value the cooperatives can bring to the actual social dialogue? The argument is of course for the cooperatives that they are really missing an the table, as they are a different kind of enterprise. Another question by the Commission was of course the level at which the cooperatives would like to enter the European social dialogue; as social economy, it would be very difficult nowadays, and only be possible in Spain and France. But as we have heard this morning, there are things happening at the national levels. In Malta, the promotion of cooperatives is part of the strategy of the trade union, in Italy, trade unions and cooperatives are working also as a partner on different issues, doing and resolving things together, which can also be a model for some European issues. Felice Scalvini concluded by stating that the cooperation has visibly advanced and grown. Cooperatives Europe has been set up after more than 10 years of negotiations: this changes the position of cooperative enterprises in Europe, as there is a single voice for them. If the cooperatives want to give strength to this European organisation, strong national sector and cross-sector organisations are necessary. A further step has surely been the acquisition by them of a European House for Cooperatives in Brussels, being now the reference point. He concluded the meeting by thanking all the participants for their active participation and wishing them a good stay.