The issue of “freelancers” cooperatives in Spain is a controversial one. Partly because the function and objective of worker cooperatives (democratic governance, solidarity, mutual support, cooperativization of work…) are confused with a series of false cooperatives; that only give the possibility for self-employed to invoice, paying less taxes. A legal loophole that is now in question.
The Spanish Confederation of Cooperatives of Associated Work (COCETA) received several questions from the media, to which its president Juan Antonio Pedreño responded: “The members do not even know each other. The cooperative cannot be a model to defraud, where participation, a pillar of cooperativism, is exercised as an administrative act”.
The cooperative law of 1999 clearly explains the object in the associated work cooperatives: “to provide its members with jobs through their personal effort through the common organization of the production of goods or services for third parties”.
Read more at CICOPA!
