COOPERATIVES AND EMPLOYMENT: a Global Report Bruno Roelants, Eum Hyungsik and Elisa Terrasi, CICOPA COOPERATIVES AND EMPLOYMENT: A GLOBAL REPORT ABOUT THE AUTHORS Bruno Roelants has been Secretary General of CICOPA since 2002 and of its regional organization CECOP CICOPA-Europe since 2006. He worked on development projects in China, India and Eastern Europe, and coordinated the cooperative negotiating group for the ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation 2002 (n° 193). He has a Masters in labour studies. He has lectured on cooperatives in Italy and is co-author of Cooperatives, Territories and Jobs (2011), as well as Capital and the Debt Trap – Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis (2013). He edited the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) report Cooperative Growth for the 21st Century (2013). Eum Hyungsik has been CICOPA’s Data Analyst since 2009. He was the coordinator in the elaboration of the World Standards of Social Cooperatives between 2008 and 2011 and participated in a European project on cooperatives’ resilience to the economic crisis in 2012. He is also a PhD fellow at the Centre for Social Economy, University of Liège, Belgium. As a sociologist, he has worked on the conceptual debate and institutionalisation process of cooperatives, social economy and social enterprises, particularly in Europe and East Asia. Before joining CICOPA, he worked as a researcher and activist in the social economy and in the worker cooperative movement in South Korea. Elisa Terrasi has been CICOPA’s Development and Studies Officer since 2011. She coordinated the drafting of CICOPA’s 2013 report Cooperatives as Builders of Sustainable Development and of CECOP – CICOPA Europe’s 2012 report The Resilience of the Cooperative Model. She is presently in charge of the Cooproute project which is establishing a European itinerary of the cooperative culture. She previously worked in Italy on issues such as social economy, social movements, anti-discrimination, migration, and identity. She has a degree in Social Anthropology. Cooperatives and Employment: a Global Report was commissioned for the 2014 International Summit of Cooperatives, held in Quebec City from Copyright © 2014, CICOPA & Desjardins Group. 6 to 9 October All rights reserved ISBN: 978-2-930816-00-5 Legal deposit: D/2014/13.486/1 Graphic design: Juan Burgos Proofreading: Tony Costante and Helen Robinson It is forbidden to reproduce this publication partially or totally before receiving prior written permission from CICOPA or Desjardins Group TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 WORLD MAP WITH THE REGIONS SURVEYED DURING THE FIELDWORK 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO COOPERATIVE EMPLOYMENT IN THE WORLD CONTEXT 12 1.1. Goals and structure of this report 13 1.2. Main global trends of employment and unemployment, and how cooperatives reportedly stand out 14 1.3. Key definitions 16 1.4. Main characteristics and limitations of the study 18 1.5. Methodological considerations 19 CHAPTER 2 QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES OF COOPERATIVE EMPLOYMENT AT THE WORLD LEVEL 24 2.1. Definition of the key categories 25 2.2. Present estimates at global level and in the G20 28 2.2.1. Estimates at global level 28 2.2.2. Estimates for the G20 29 2.3. Evolution of cooperative employment over time 32 2.3.1. Resilience of cooperatives to the crisis 32 2.3.2. Evolution of employment since 2000 in selected countries 34 CHAPTER 3 COOPERATIVE EMPLOYMENT: ANALYSIS FROM THE 10 REGIONS SURVEYED 40 3.1. Quantitative analysis 41 3.1.1. Overall data 41 3.1.2. Evolution of cooperative employment over time 45 3.1.3. Labour contracts and labour practices 49 3.1.4. Gender 50 3.1.5. Age 52 3.1.6. Location of employment 53 3.1.7. Size of employment per cooperative 54 3.2. Qualitative analysis 55 3.2.1. Cooperative employment from various angles of analysis 56 3.2.2. The characteristics of cooperative employment as experienced by the people themselves 64 3 COOPERATIVES AND EMPLOYMENT: A GLOBAL REPORT CHAPTER 4 COOPERATIVE EMPLOYMENT AND COOPERATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP 80 4.1. How the specific characteristics of cooperative employment impact upon the economic sustainability of cooperatives and vice versa 82 4.1.1. The long-term duration of employment 82 4.1.2. The attitude of staff and members 82 4.1.3. Education and training 85 4.1.4. Constitution of financial reserves 86 4.1.5. Contribution to the formalization of employment and of the economy 87 4.1.6. The cooperation between workers, users, producers and other stakeholder 88 4.1.7. Economies of scale 89 4.2. Entrepreneurial challenges that cooperative employment is facing 94 4.2.1. Facing intensifying global competition 94 4.2.2. Tackling weakness in management skills 95 4.2.3. Responding to population challenges and generational issues 96 4.2.4. Dealing with the “blind spot” of labour protection 97 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 100 5.1. Conclusions 101 5.2. Recommendations 105 5.2.1. Employment policy and statistics 105 5.2.2. Entrepreneurship 107 5.2.3. Labour standards, transition towards the formal economy, social protection and fight against pseudo cooperatives 110 5.2.4. Education, training and research in cooperative employment 112 5.2.5. Development policy 112 BIBLIOGRAPHY 114 ANNEX 1 NATIONAL DATA 120 ANNEX 2 BASIC INFORMATION ON THE 10 REGIONS SURVEYED DURING THE FIELDWORK 128 ANNEX 3 LIST OF INTERVIEWS 140 PHOTOS 146 4 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1 List of target regions 11 TABLE 2 Cooperative employment numbers worldwide by continents and categories 29 TABLE 3 Cooperative employment numbers in the G20, by countries and by categories 30 TABLE 4 Evolution of total employees in Canadian cooperatives between 2000 and 2009 34 TABLE 5 Changes in the ratio of employment in Canadian cooperatives out of the total employed population between 2000 and 2008 35 TABLE 6 Evolution of producer-members in Canadian producers’ cooperatives between 2000 and 2009 35 TABLE 7 Evolution of employment in French worker cooperatives and multi-stakeholder cooperatives between 2000 and 2013 36 TABLE 8 Changes in the ratio of employees in French cooperatives from the total of employees between 2008 and 2012 36 TABLE 9 Evolution of numbers of producer-members and employees in Japanese agricultural cooperatives and fisheries cooperatives between 2001 and 2011 37 TABLE 10 General information on cooperative employment in 8 regions 42 TABLE 11 Number of cooperatives and employment in cooperatives in the Basque Country and in Emilia-Romagna, by sector 43 TABLE 12 Employment in cooperatives, Kanagawa, by type of cooperative 44 TABLE 13 Number of worker cooperatives, older persons’ cooperatives and worker collectives in Kanagawa by sector 44 TABLE 14 Changes in cooperative employment and in the employed population in general in the Basque Country between 2006 and 2010 45 TABLE 15 Changes in employment in cooperatives and in the employed population in general in Emilia-Romagna between 2008 and 2013 46 TABLE 16 Changes in employment in social cooperatives and the employed population in general in Emilia-Romagna between 2008 and 2013 47 TABLE 17 Changes in employment in cooperatives excluding social cooperatives in Emilia- Romagna between 2008 and 2013 47 TABLE 18 Ratio of regular and temporary labour contracts in cooperatives, by type of cooperatives 49 TABLE 19 Ratio of gender in cooperative employment by type of cooperatives 51 TABLE 20 Cooperative employment numbers in regions with important rural areas 54 TABLE 21 Number of cooperatives and employment in cooperatives in Quebec, Basque Country and Emilia-Romagna by size of cooperatives 55 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors, who are all three staff members of CICOPA, wish to thank everyone who has made this study possible, especially all of the employees, worker-members and producer-members of cooperatives who agreed to be interviewed and to share their experiences and opinions. The following members of the CICOPA staff should be thanked for their concrete contribution: Helen Robinson for her careful assistance during the whole period, Leire Luengo for her valiant advice on the design and structure of the report and Diana Dovgan for sharing her accurate comments and reflections. CICOPA has been able to rely upon the priceless collaboration of its members, as well as that of its long-time partner organisations and local contacts for the preparation of the fieldwork, its follow- up and the collection of substantial contextual information in the 10 regions selected for this study. In particular, the authors wish to express their gratitude to the following people: Jungdae Na, Hallym University (South Korea); Jaeyoung Go, National Trade Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (South Korea); Sunki Kim, Wonju Cooperative Network (South Korea); Daejin Kim, Hansallim Youngdong (South Korea); Dongyoung Chang, Balgeum Credit Union (South Korea); Kyungbae Ji, Research Institute for Gangwon (South Korea); Michiyo Imai, Meiji University (Japan); Yoshiko Yamada and Takako Tsuchiya, Japan Workers’ Cooperative Union (Japan); Kitaguchi Akiko and Suzuki Kurato, National Federation of Consumer Cooperative Trade Union (Japan); Hyontae Kim, Ritsumeikan Center for Korean Studies (Japan); Akira Kurimoto, Consumer Co-operative Institute of Japan (Japan); Kobayashi Hajime, Japan Cooperative General Research Institute (Japan); Asami Hideaki, Federation of Consumer Cooperatives in Kanagawa (Japan); Okada Yuriko, Association of Workers’ collectives (Japan); Kawamura Naoko, Kanagawa Workers’ Collectives Federation (Japan); Youko Snaga,