ILO COOP/SSE Participates in the CECOP Lights On Project Launch

On November 19 2021, the European Confederation of Industrial and Service cooperatives (CECOP) launched a new report that documents how worker and social cooperatives can assist workers and enterprises in the transition to the formal economy in Europe.

News | 23 November 2021
ILO COOP Manager Ms Esim participated in the launch of the report “Lights On: Workers and Social Cooperatives Tackling Undeclared Work”. She started her keynote speech by commending CECOP and the author of the report Dr. Francesca Martinelli for the relevance and timelines of this work.
She noted that the ILO has adopted a Recommendation concerning the transition from the informal to the formal economy (No. 204) in 2015. She mentioned that the Recommendation acknowledges cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy units as a means to facilitate the transition to the formal economy.

She indicated that employment in the informal economy has been widespread across the world, especially in developing countries in the Global South. According to ILO estimates, in Europe and Central Asia, 25 per cent of workers make their living in the informal economy, she highlighted.
She suggested that cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations can: help enhance the bargaining position of workers vis a vis the public and private sector actors; facilitate access to social protection; improve their resilience, save costs through shared services, and increase their incomes through an increased level of production or the diversification of product lines.

She concluded by mentioning that the agenda of the ILO’s 2022 International Labour Conference includes item on “Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) for a human-centred future of work” for general discussion.

She called on European workers and social cooperatives to engage with the ILO constituents in the region in the lead up to the general discussion which will include deliberations on cooperatives as well as other SSE units.

ILO COOP keynote address is available here.

The programme of the event is available here.

The videos of the docuseries associated with the report are available here.

The video of the conference is available here