Spanish Sociedades Laborales Activating the Unemployed

Transcription

1 Spanish Sociedades Laborales Activating the Unemployed

2 Jens Lowitzsch Sophie Dunsch Iraj Hashi Spanish Sociedades Laborales Activating the Unemployed A Potential New EU Active Labour Market Policy Instrument

3 Jens Lowitzsch Europa Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Germany Sophie Dunsch Europa Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Germany Iraj Hashi School of Business, Leadership and Economics Staffordshire University Stoke on Trent UK ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Control Number: The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Pattern adapted from an Indian cotton print produced in the 19th century Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

4 Foreword In its resolution of 15 September 2016 on how best to harness the job creation potential of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (2015/2320(INI)), the European Parliament calls on the Commission to engage Member States and local as well as regional authorities to facilitate the establishment and operation of successful SME models. These measures should in particular embrace concepts that target micro-enterprises, create secondary employment and promote the integration of young people facing unemployment. In this context it is important to recall that SMEs and micro-enterprises provide 90 million jobs in the private sector in the EU and 85 per cent of all new jobs between 2003 and 2013 have come from SMEs (European Parliament, 2013). The Sociedades Laborales (SLs), established in Spain since 1986, are majority employee-owned and mostly small and micro-enterprises. Jobseekers can start a new SL or increase the capital of an existing SL by joining it through the capitalisation of their unemployment benefits as a lump sum. These enterprises play an important role in job creation and expanding secondary employment. They are based on employee ownership whose demonstrated benefits complement the policy aims of v

5 vi Foreword ALMPs. As a concept that combines the features of a start-up incentive system aimed at activating the jobseekers with those of employee ownership, the SL offers an alternative approach to the traditional ALMPs. In Spain, this approach is already market tested and found effective for more than three decades. But the EP is also concerned about the precarious working conditions of a high number of self-employed workers and their increasing levels of poverty. Although it is true that start-up schemes for unemployed when successful put jobseekers into occupation and contribute to reducing unemployment, the resulting self-employment often remains precarious. This is different in SLs: as a corporation, the SL provides an unemployed person who joins or sets up a SL not only with access to capital but with business and entrepreneurial mentoring and practical expertise. Additionally, it provides him or her with the opportunity to create social capital among the founders as unlike self-employment schemes it requires a minimum of three founders. Furthermore, the EP has called on the Commission to make full use of EU funding sources (e.g. the EFSI, the ESF, the ERDF, COSME, Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+) to help overcome the difficulties in accessing information, counselling and finance to promote entrepreneurship. Here, the concept of SLs could play an important role across the EU as it is a proven model answering the mentioned desiderata, especially in respect to activating jobseekers. The new 2015 Law on Worker-Owned and Participatory Companies in Spain has substantially modernised the concept of SLs 30 years after its inception and thus could be a model for further policy action. It is critical to make SLs accessible to young unemployed persons as they often never have been employed, have never paid into the unemployment insurance system and thus cannot use the mechanism of capitalising unemployment benefits. As a result, the weakest group of unoccupied people are excluded from this successful programme. Microfinance mostly targeted at micro-entrepreneurs and people in a disadvantaged position who wish to create their own business in combination with the conversion of unemployment benefits to capitalise start-ups could be an important lever to promote the inclusion of young jobseekers in a European Sociedad Laboral.

6 Foreword vii As the EP has called on Member States to adopt favourable legislative frameworks to promote and support the employment of young people in SMEs or incentivise them to start their own businesses, including by better access to tailor-made counselling and by facilitating access to credit and funding arrangements, the transferability of the concept of SLs is of primary importance. While the authors show that there are no obstacles to transferring the Sociedad Laboral to other Member States, the model has important benefits that make it particularly suitable for combination with existing national start-up incentives for the unemployed. The EP has also requested the Commission to facilitate efficient exchanges of best practices among the Member States regarding their different regulatory environments for SMEs and micro-enterprises. The publication of this book is strongly to be welcomed as an important and timely contribution to the range of topical debates. The work of its authors in presenting an established concept for both the setting up by and the inclusion of unemployed in successful companies as well as for facilitating employee financial participation is particularly auspicious as this success story has, so far, gone largely unnoticed. This book is of particular importance for the EU as well as national policy agenda as it investigates not just the potential of SLs as an instrument of ALMP and the promotion of employee ownership and participation, but also the transferability of the scheme to other EU Member States. Renate Weber MEP, Vice-Chair of the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament

7 Preface This book addresses two widely discussed current policy challenges at both the EU level as well as the national level, i.e. reactivating the unemployed through Active Labour Market Policies (ALMP) and encouraging employee co-ownership in the context of the economic reform agenda in particular with regard to corporate governance, regional economic stimuli and distributive justice. The Sociedades Laborales (SLs), developed in Spain over the past 30 years, are a qualified form of conventional companies, mostly small and micro and majority-owned by their permanent employees. Unemployed persons can capitalise their unemployment benefits as a lump sum to start a new SL or to recapitalise an existing SL by joining it. This makes SLs similar to start-up subsidies for the unemployed, an established instrument of active labour market policy across the EU. But unlike conventional companies, their employees own the majority of SLs shares. And indeed, employee ownership can contribute to economic growth and competitiveness by harnessing the power and initiative of employees through their increased commitment and involvement. This is why the European Commission and the Parliament have been promoting it. Furthermore, DG EMPL and DG GROW are currently discussing the ix

8 x Preface extent to which employee ownership can be seen as a bridge technology to link the social economy which is often perceived as merely charitable and non-profit to traditional private sector enterprises. Last but not least, the Commission calls for a partnership with national, regional and local authorities to promote successful start-ups which can create jobs, compete on the market and be socially responsible (European Commission 2016). This book is a complete novelty; there has been no research on SL published in English yet; even the publications in Spanish are mostly in the form of reports rather than systematic research. The book directly addresses the most pressing challenges to the EU economies, i.e. increasing unemployment and the increasing inequality between the workers and the unemployed on the one hand and the owners of capital and wealth on the other (or, to put it differently, distributive justice). Its contents are on the Agenda of the EU and national policymakers. Furthermore, it has the unique approach of linking employee ownership and ALMP, including the analysis of the transferability of the concept and practice to other EU Member States. Finally, the legal and empirical information is fresh and up to date; this is of particular importance as the legal environment for SLs in Spain has changed after a major reform in November As the challenges of both increasing unemployment as well as increasing inequality are EU-wide, the book should potentially meet the interests of policymakers, academics, researchers and lobby groups across the EU. In particular, trade union organisations, employers associations and think tanks close to them and policy advice groups at both the EU and national levels are expected to be interested in the results of the transferability analysis. The book, therefore, should have interested readers in all 28 Member States. Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Stoke-on-Trent, UK Jens Lowitzsch Sophie Dunsch Iraj Hashi

9 Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Muna Yaffai (calculation of survival rates), Elhadj Abdoulaye Séne (legal framework) and Armandina Vogel (initial research and case studies) for their valuable input. We are indebted to the Business Association of Worker-Owned Companies of the Basque Country (Agrupación Empresarial de Sociedades Laborales de Euskadi, ASLE) and particularly to Jone Nolte and Anabel Yoldi for their support with data and information from their daily practice working with Sociedades Laborales. We are furthermore grateful to the Departement of Employment and Social Policies of the Basque Provincial Government and the State Public Service of Employment (Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal, SEPE) for their valuable data input. xi

10 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Review of the Literature on Employee-Owned Firms 9 3 Regulatory Framework 21 4 Empirical Data on Sociedades Laborales, Evaluation of the Programme 73 6 Conclusions 93 Annex I: Description of Data Sources 103 Annex II: Overview Low-Threshold Limited Liability Companies in the EU xiii

11 xiv Contents Annex III: Overview of ALMP Start-up Incentives in the EU Bibliography 119 Index 125

12 Abbreviations ALMP ASLE CIRIEC CONFESAL EEPO EFP ERDF ESF ESO ESOP EU INE LLC MEYSS OECD Active labour market policy Agrupación Empresarial de Sociedades Laborales de Euskadi (Business Association of Worker-Owned Companies of the Basque Country) Centre International de Recherches et d Information sur l Economie Collective (International Centre of Research and Information on the Collective Economy) Confederación Empresarial de Sociedades Laborales de España (Business Confederation of Worker-Owned Companies of Spain) European Employment Policy Observatory Employee financial participation European Regional Development Fund European Social Fund Employee share ownership Employee Stock Ownership Plan European Union Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Statistics Institute) Limited liability company Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social (Ministry for Employment and Social Security) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development xv

13 xvi ROA SAL SLL SL SEPE SME TSL VAT Abbreviations Return on investment Sociedad Anónima Laboral, plural: Sociedades Anónimas Laborales ( Joint Stock SL) Sociedad Limitada Laboral, plural: Sociedades Limitadas Laborales (Limited Liability SL) Sociedad Laboral, plural: Sociedades Laborales (worker-owned company) Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal (State Public Service of Employment) Small- and medium-sized enterprise SLs that transformed to conventional firms Value-added tax

14 List of Figures Fig. 4.1 SLs registered by legal form, Fig. 4.2 Employees in worker-owned companies according to legal form, Fig. 4.3 Sectoral distribution of employment in SLs in Fig. 4.4 Number of SLLs and SALs from 1999 to Fig. 4.5 Workers in SLLs and SALs from 1999 to Fig. 4.6 Employment in SLs including partners registered in the social security regime for independent workers ( autonomos ) Fig. 4.7 Changes in employment in SLs by sector, Fig. 4.8 Annual changes in employment in SLs in selected Fig. 4.9 sectors in Spain, (in percentages) 50 Annual changes in employment in conventional firms in selected sectors in Spain, (in percentages) 51 Fig Number of SLLs by company size, Fig Employment level in SLLs by company size from 1999 to Fig Survival rates of SLLs in Spain, Fig Number of persons using their unemployment benefit to set up or join a SL in Spain by gender, xvii

15 xviii Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig Fig. 5.1 List of Figures Number of persons using their unemployment benefit to set up or join a SL in Spain according to age groups, Survival rate of SLLs founded in 2003 in the Basque Country over 10 years ( ), adjusted versus unadjusted 57 Median survival rates of SLLs in different sectors in the Basque Country, Number of persons using their unemployment benefit to set up or join a SL in the Basque Country by gender, Number of persons using their unemployment benefit to set up or join a SL in the Basque Country according to age groups, Proportion of working partners versus investing partners of SLLs in the Basque Country by gender, Number of SLLs in the Basque Country with and without initial investing partner according to the number of partners, Median initial capitalisation of SLLs founded in the Basque Country with and without investing partner according to the number of partners, Total initial capitalisation and the contribution of investing partners in all SLLs with three founding partners in the Basque Country, Total initial capitalisation and the contribution of female partners in all SLLs with three founding partners in the Basque Country, Proportion of female and male working and investing partners in SLLs of different size groups founded in the Basque Country, Percentage of persons from age 16 to 24 using their unemployment benefit to set up or join a SL ( ) in Spain and the Basque Country 76

16 List of Figures xix Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3 Distribution of Working Partners vs. Investing Partners of SLs in Spain, Comparison of the survival rates of SLLs founded between 2005 and 2011 with that of conventional companies in Spain 83

17 List of Tables Table 3.1 Changes in the rules for SLs introduced in November Table 3.2 Stages in the development of legislation on SLs 28 Table 3.3 Comparative table on social security features of SLs 30 Table 3.4 Subsidies and grants for cooperatives and SLs in Spain (in EUR) 35 Table 3.5 Aids to SLs for the development of business activities in the Basque country Table 3.6 Aids for integration of persons as partners in SLs in the Basque Country Table 3.7 Aids to SLs for the setting up of the corporation in the Basque Country Table 4.1 Total employment in SLs (both workers registered with the General SSC regime and those registered under the Autonomos regime) in different regions of Spain in Table 4.2 Structure of employment (non-owner-workers and owner-workers) in SLs according to sectors in Spain in Table 4.3 Social security regime covering employees of SLs in Spain xxi

18 xxii List of Tables Table 4.4 Capitalisation of unemployment benefits for founding, or buying into, a SL in Spain, Table 4.5 Capitalisation of unemployment benefits for founding, or buying into, a SL in the Basque Country, Table 4.6 Female partners in SLLs with three partners 66 Table 5.1 Overall subsidies to Sociedades Laborales by the Basque Provincial Government 74 Table 5.2 Subsidies by the Basque Provincial Government for setting up Sociedades Laborales 75 Table 5.3 Cost of subsidies of the Basque Government for continuous support 77 Table 5.4 Median survival rate of SLs founded from 2003 to 2010 coached by ASLE versus without assistance 77 Table 5.5 Working partners and investing partners in Sociedades Laborales in Spain,