Updates rules for cooperatives, integration companies and the social economy

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. Cooperatives will be able to use digital tools: electronic communications with members, remote participation in the General Assembly and in the Governing Council, and assembly notices sent by postal or electronic mail or posted on the corporate website. Cooperatives with more than five hundred members will be required to have a corporate website.
2. Equality between women and men is strengthened in cooperatives: a voluntary Equality Commission is created for cooperatives with fifty or more members, and cooperative equality plans are regulated for worker cooperatives, including a diagnosis, measures and registration.
3. The grounds for disqualifying cooperatives are expanded to fight fake cooperatives: for example, when members' democratic participation is blocked, when the cooperative depends excessively on a client company, or when it only bills services supplied by its own members.
4. Integration companies will be able to hire a wider range of people at risk of social exclusion, with new profiles such as homeless people, young people coming out of child protection, immigrants or people from regularization processes, and victims of gender-based or sexual violence.
5. The contract for the transition to ordinary employment is regulated: it will last between six months and three years, must be in writing with an annex on the insertion pathway, and will entitle employers to Social Security rebates of between 73 and 147 euros per month for three years depending on the case.
6. Integration companies must keep at least thirty percent of workers in the insertion process during their first three years and fifty percent from the fourth year on, and must commit to reinvesting one hundred percent of their surpluses without distributing profits.
7. The Social Economy Law is updated: social initiative special employment centers and the concept of social enterprise are added, the Catalog of Social Economy Entities becomes a state statistical tool, and fair trade entities may become part of the social economy.
8. Housing cooperatives under a use assignment scheme may be considered especially protected cooperatives with tax benefits, provided they keep ownership of the housing assigned to their members and do not distribute returns.

Who it affects

• Members of cooperatives: They will have more digital and remote participation rights, plus stronger guarantees of information and equality.
• People at risk of social exclusion: They can be hired by integration companies under more recognized profiles, with a contract designed to move them into ordinary employment.
• Integration companies and their promoting entities: They must adapt to the new requirements within one year and can access aid and reserved public contracts.
• Use-assignment housing cooperatives: They may qualify for a specially protected tax regime if they meet the requirements.
• Social economy entities: They are better classified and benefit from more public promotion policies, including fair trade.

Words worth knowing

Cooperativa (cooperative)

A company formed by people who freely join together to meet their economic and social needs through a jointly owned, democratically managed business.

Empresa de inserción (integration company)

A company whose main purpose is to give jobs and training to people who have trouble entering the regular labor market, so they can later work for regular companies.

Asamblea General (General Assembly)

The body of a cooperative where members meet, debate and vote on important decisions.

Consejo Rector (Governing Council)

The governing body of the cooperative that represents and manages it, following what the General Assembly decides.

Descalificación (disqualification)

An administrative decision that removes an entity's status as a cooperative or integration company when it breaks the rules.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries