Italian Coalition Forms to Promote Employee Ownership

A coalition led by the Italian worker cooperative movement will present a proposal to create employee ownership legislation in Italy. The proposal, to be presented in May, will create a trust-based employee ownership plan funded out of existing pension contributions by Italian employers. The coalition includes Italy's second-largest party, the Democratic Party of the Left, two of the three major labor unions, and church leaders.

The Italian worker cooperative sector is the largest in the world, encompassing about 100,000 employees in hundreds of businesses, mostly in the construction trades. After a conference in October, the cooperative leadership decided a new legislative structure was needed to move employee ownership forward. The NCEO will serve on the board of the new coalition.