Workers buyout, how the worker can save the company and become its owner. The government considers strengthening the instrument
Rescue actions of companies in crisis by employees taking over ownership, using unemployment benefits are an alternative to the use of social safety nets
2' min read
2' min read
Strengthen support for workers buyouts (Wbo), i.e. actions to rescue companies in crisis by employees taking over ownership, using unemployment benefits as a development incentive to create new jobs.
This is the appeal launched by Confcooperative, in the voice of its president Maurizio Gardini, which organised the presentation of the book on workers buyouts by Luigi Zingone, in the presence of the undersecretary of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy Massimo Bitonci and the president of Cooperazione finanza e impresa (Cfi) Mauro Frangi.
How the workers buyout is financed
The Marcora law (Law No. 49/1985), has proved to be an effective active labour policy tool, and has been used to regenerate companies in economic crisis or to foster a generational change in companies without heirs or for companies confiscated from mafia clans taken over by employees. Workers invest their own resources - from the Naspi advance to the severance pay - and with the funds of the Marcora law, the support of Cfi and the central cooperatives in the activation of financing for the creation of share capital, they become responsible for the management of the company.
The average investment per employee is less than EUR 12,000, less than the cost of a year's redundancy payment, but in the case of workers' buy-outs, work is created that generates income and tax and social security revenue: 'for every EUR 1 invested in the community, almost EUR 8 returns in terms of tax and social security revenue,' recalled Frangi.
More than 2 thousand jobs saved
.Looking at the numbers, as of 2023 Cfi has supported 93 'regenerated' cooperative enterprises by deciding on investments of 57.5 million euro, contributing to the continued employment of 2,111 people. In the last five years alone, through Fondosviluppo, Confcooperative has supported about 25 workers buyouts that have employed 500 people with an investment of more than EUR 2.5 million. "We are asking the government to renew the coverage for the Marcora law by also strengthening it, the numbers confirm that it is an investment and not an expense," Gardini said.
