Editing Cooperative (section)

=== The problem of labour fraud ===
However, the recognition of cooperatives as different entities than conventional firms sometimes creates a legal void that has been used regularly for labour fraud.<ref name=":2" /> For example, in Spain, cooperatives are not subjected to the sectoral collective agreements of each sector.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Aragonés |first=Vidal |date=22 September 2019 |title=Falses cooperatives: un atac al cooperativisme i a les treballadores |url=https://catarsimagazin.cat/falses-cooperatives-un-atac-al-cooperativisme-i-a-les-treballadores/ |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=Catarsi |language=ca}}</ref> In some cases, businesses take the form of a cooperative to avoid being subjected to collective agreements gained through trade unionism and [[syndicalism]], thus being able to pay lower or have worse labor conditions than the ones stipulated in the collective agreement, while at the same time retaining the same power and salary pyramids.<ref name=":2" />

Many cooperatives are accused of being instruments to be used to lay off workers, to out-source and to exploit workers and small producers. The "cooperativatisation" of both public and private sector activities in some countries has been accompanied by a deterioration of working conditions. This is due both to the perversion of the cooperative form and to weak labour regulations applied to these kinds of work forms.<ref name=":2" />

Usually, the law establishes that a cooperative is required to have a minimum percentage of workers-owners (usually 33%). Cooperatives can hire workers that are not part of the cooperative, but the law usually establishes a maximum amount of time that they can work in the cooperative without being members of it; after that, cooperatives are legally obliged to make those workers part of the cooperative. Some cooperatives commit labour fraud because they either have a smaller percentage of cooperativised workers than mandated by law, or they have people working without becoming members for more time than legally allowed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 March 2007 |title=La CGT desvela el fraude masivo en el uso de las cooperativas |url=https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/pontevedra/pontevedra/2007/03/01/cgt-desvela-fraude-masivo-uso-cooperativas/0003_5592044.htm |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=La Voz de Galicia |language=es}}</ref>

In Spain, since the law does not subject cooperatives to the collective agreements or to the [[Social security in Spain|social security]] regulations, the following scheme has been used: if a business wants to pay less than what the sector agreement of its economic sector establishes, the business can create a cooperative, which is not subjected to it, hire all the workers using that cooperative, and then outsource the activity to this cooperative. In this way, instead of having to hire all the workers directly (thus having to pay the Social Security fees and the minimum wage established by the collective agreement), the company only has to use the cooperative as a [[shell company]], and in this way it does not have to pay according to the agreement, and since the workers are hired by the cooperative and not by the company, they are not subject to the either the sector agreement or social security.<ref name=":5" /> This is the case, for example, of Spain's [[Servicarne Coop]], hired by meat industries such as [[Coren (meat company)|Coren]] and [[Sada (meat company)|Sada]], which according to the [[Audiencia Nacional]] "does not carry out a cooperative activity" and "has not been established with the purpose of fulfilling the objectives set forth in the Cooperatives Law [...] but only with the aim of obtaining certain benefits that are linked to it, creating a merely formal appearance of a cooperative", for example, to avoid paying the Social Security fees.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bárcena |first=Selina |date=9 May 2023 |title=La Audiencia Nacional confirma que Servicarne es una "falsa cooperativa" |url=https://elpais.com/economia/2023-05-09/la-audiencia-nacional-confirma-que-servicarne-es-una-falsa-cooperativa.html |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=El País |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Gómez |first1=Manuel V. |last2=Sevillano |first2=Elena G. |date=2 May 2019 |title=Trabajo retira la licencia a la "falsa cooperativa" cárnica Servicarne por fraude |language=es |work=El País |url=https://elpais.com/economia/2019/05/02/actualidad/1556826727_472578.html |access-date=2023-07-22 |issn=1134-6582}}</ref>

Potential solutions to this fraudulent usage of workers' cooperatives have been suggested, such as covering the legal void that allows this to happen,<ref name=":2" /> creating cooperative federations that ensure the cooperative identity and its regular functioning, etc.