• "A great deal, consensus and political measures are necessary to guarantee a way out of the crisis in which we bet on the creation of stable, inclusive and, above all, quality employment, as we defend from the Social Economy", specifies the President of the Spanish Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES), Juan Antonio Pedreño.
• CEPES expresses its gratitude to all the workers involved in the fight against the pandemic, while requesting that they be provided with all the necessary protection and test means to carry out their work in complete safety.
• With the aim of maintaining jobs and saving companies, CEPES will work to promote business transformations, through which the ownership and management of mercantile companies in crisis or doomed to closure, converted into cooperatives and labor companies, passes to its employees.
Madrid, April 30, 2020.- The Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy (CEPES) requests, on the occasion of the celebration of May 1, that the reconstruction policies after COVID19 be committed to the creation and maintenance of a job .
“To get out of this situation, apart from solidarity between all social and economic actors, a great deal, consensus and political measures are necessary to guarantee a way out of the crisis in which the creation of stable, inclusive employment is prioritized and, above all, of quality, as we defend from the Social Economy ”, stressed the president of CEPES, Juan Antonio Pedreño .
"From the employers of the Social Economy we are going to collaborate with the Government, with Political Parties and with the rest of agents and public administrations. In the debate on generating more and better jobs, the Social Economy is a benchmark because it has demonstrated at all times, both in times of economic growth and in times of deep crisis and recession, its added value in generating wealth and employment . It is the derivative of the principles of solidarity that support its business management ”, added Pedreño.
I also point out that "to respond to the challenges of society we have to transform and generate another production model to the current one, in which the Social Economy will have a relevant role, where concern for people prevails over capital."
Appreciation for workers fighting the pandemic
Likewise, the employers of the Social Economy shows its solidarity and gratitude with all the workers involved in the fight against the pandemic, at the same time that it requests that they be provided with all the means of protection and tests necessary to carry out their work safely.
Many workers in the Social Economy work in various sectors of activity in the fight against the pandemic : industrial, financial, health, insurance, hotels, electrical, agri-food, livestock, Fishing, sanitary, consumption, distribution, education, dependency, social, technological , cultural, construction, or culture and leisure….
CEPES President, Juan Antonio Pedreño, recalls “that a few days ago CEPES produced a report that aims to send society a message of recognition, social responsibility, improvement, effort and above all solidarity from Social Economy companies that in These days of emergency demonstrate their concern for people. "
The report, which the employers of the Social Economy has submitted to the Government, is available on the CEPES website through the following link: https://cutt.ly/Byr6kpR and shows thethe most supportive of 383 Social Economy companies and their actions before COVID-19.
Business transformations
CEPES will also work, with the objective of maintaining employment and maintaining business activity, to promote business transformations of mercantile companies in crisis in others in the Social Economy, especially cooperatives and labor companies.
This option, of which Spain is the European leader, has already allowed, in the previous crisis, to save jobs and avoid the closure of numerous companies in crisis or doomed to closure, since the ownership and management of the company are transferred to their former employees. In the vast majority of cases where these transformations have occurred, the workers invested savings or capitalized the unemployment benefit to continue with the activity of their old company, and in this way keep alive both their activity and their jobs.
The vast majority of these business transformations managed, over time, to remain in the market and, especially, to enhance their activity. Currently, these companies operate in all economic sectors as Cooperative Societies and Labor Societies.
The President of CEPES recalled that "Spain became, in the previous financial crisis of 2008, the first European country in the number of transformations of mercantile companies into Social Economy companies."
Future of Work
The President of CEPES recalls the importance of continuing to deepen the debate on the Future of Work. In this sense, it recalls the Manifesto that was signed last year between the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, the ILO and CEPES, where the three institutions stressed that “the Social Economy has important challenges for adapting to the future of work, while it contributes to respond to technological changes, to the energy transition, to digitization and to environmental, demographic and inequality correction imbalances ”.
Pedreño adds that "we are on the way to making the Social Economy one of the fundamental agents of the future because it has principles and values that are becoming even more visible in these delicate moments caused by COVID-19".
European Social Fund
On International Labor Day, it is important to remember the added value on employment, which has made the Social Economy one of the Government's investment priorities for the European Social Fund in Spain. This decision is translating into the creation of thousands of new companies and jobs in the Social Economy through the Social Inclusion and Social Economy Program (POISES) in whose management CEPES participates as the ESF Intermediate Body.
The qualities that Europe is betting on for job creation in the Social Economy are:
• Inclusive job creation. The Social Economy incorporates, to a much greater extent than other business models, groups of workers with specific difficulties in accessing employment, such as women over 45, people over 55, people with disabilities, people in situations or at risk of social exclusion and low-skilled people.
• Higher levels of job stability. More than 75% of employment is permanent and 80% is full time.
• Lower wage gap . Salary levels are much more equal. The lower wage dispersion is mainly due tohigher containment in senior management salaries and high qualifications (salary higher than the global average salary by 65%, while in other business models this difference is 102.0%).
• Higher levels of equality . This is shown by the best results obtained in different dimensions of the same as the gender wage gaps, which are clearly smaller; diversity in management, with a greater incorporation of women and people with disabilities; or the possibilities of reconciling better family and professional life.
Decisive weight in rural Spain
Social economy companies often constitute the only existing business network in large areas of the rural environment, these companies do not relocate, being the main source of entrepreneurial capacity building in rural areas, as well as in maintaining employment and fixing population in those areas. This means that many people can continue living in their places of origin and that they do not abandon and degrade spaces and resources of great social, ecological, historical and cultural value. We are an important ally to combat the effects of "Spain Emptied".
The Social Economy has an important presence in intermediate cities and rural areas, and its significant contribution to the creation of a business and employment fabric is very outstanding. It is located mainly in municipalities with less than 40,000 inhabitants, (60.2% of companies and 54.6% of its workers), making it the main business act in these territories.
MESA of the Social Economy
CEPES will defend the policies of job creation in the proposals that will be presented at the Social Economy Table, recently announced by the Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz ; and in the working groups in which it will participate in the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, with whose head, Reyes Maroto , the Board of Directors of CEPES held a meeting last Friday.
