El empleo en las cooperativas de trabajo asociado: ¿derecho al trabajo o factor productivo?

Abstract

Capital companies and cooperative societies show a different nature. The first are based on the capital that gives them life, and the latter are personalistic; cooperativists have primacy over the capital they provide.

The difference is evident in the area of business decisions. In capital companies, the votes are distributed in proportion to the contributed capital. In cooperatives, prevails the classic principle of one person, one vote.

Crisis situations hit equally to both types of company. However, the response with regard to employment, is different. In capital companies, labour law provides a range of measures to tackle the crisis, some of internal flexibility (functional mobility, reducing working hours, contract suspension, etc.), and also the dismissal, just one more of the possibilities that the company may consider.

In cooperatives, cooperative law makes clear that the compulsory leave of members-workers (equivalent to dismissal), proceed only as last resort, when the internal flexibility measures are insufficient, and compulsory leave seems needed to ensure the future viability of the company.

By treating the dismissal as a measure usable to make profits, employment is a mere productive factor for labour law. The cooperative law, however, when considering the loss of employment as a last resort, is preserving its character as a social right.