Cooperatives Europe

- Social Partner Program: Consolidation -

Regional Seminar Nicosia – Cyprus

30th & 31st October 2008

Opening Ceremony

The seminar opened with a public meeting for Co-operative societies' representatives from
across Cyprus. (120+ participants). The General manager of the Cooperative Central Bank,
Erotokritos Chlorakiotis and Dame Pauline Green, co-President of Cooperatives Europe,
welcomed the participants and explained the importance of the seminar given the current
financial & economic crisis Europe and world is facing.

The Republic of Cyprus Government ministers, Sotiroula Charalambous - Minister of Labour

and Social Insurance and Antonis Paschalides- Minister of Commerce, Industry, Commerce
and Tourism extolled the value of the strong social dialogue in Cyprus and the contribution
that co-operatives make to the economic and social well-being of Cyprus. They both
welcomed the existing input from the cooperative sector in the country's social dialogue and
looked forward to an enhanced contribution from coops.

The Commissioner of the Authority for the Supervision and Development of Cooperative
Societies in Cyprus, Constantinos Lyras outlined the developments in the sector since joining
the European Union and looked forward to further development that would broaden the
scope of the co-operative enterprise model in the countries economic and social life.
Minutes of the Seminar

List of participants:

Ray Collins (chair)– Cooperatives Europe

Liliya Veneva – CCU(Bulgaria)
Petra Ivanova – CCU
Stiliana Staleva – CCU
Vesselina Starcheva – Confedederation of Labour Podkrepa (Bulgaria)
Marie Zvolska – DACR(Czech Republic)
Vladimir Matousek – Czeck Moravian TU Confederation
Nikos Gkotsinas – Paseges(Greece)
Zsuzsanna Puskas – Afeosz(Hungary)
Artemis Toumazi – Cyprus Cooperative Women's Bank (Cyprus)
Georgios Odysseos – SEK (Cyprus)
Pavlos Loukaides – Authority for Supervision and Development of Cooperative Societies
(Cyprus)
Andreas Christodoulou – Authority for Supervision and Development of Cooperative Societies
(Cyprus)
Gianna Perra – Confcooperative(Italy)
Pauline Green – Cooperatives Europe
Rainer Schlüter – Cooperatives Europe
Marc Noel – Cooperatives Europe

The second out of the 4 regional seminars took place in Nicosia the 30 th and 31st October
2008 and grouped the Eastern European countries, plus Cyprus and Greece, of the EU
(Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Cyprus and Greece). The objective of
these seminars is to make a qualitative analysis of the experiences and added value
provided by the co-operative enterprises and their employers’ organisations in the social
dialogue with the trade unions. Representatives of the co-operative organisations and trade
unions of the countries concerned are invited to present the situation of social dialogue and
industrial relations in their countries and how it could be further developed.

Introduction

Ray Collins, responsible for Communications at Cooperatives Europe, welcomed the different
participants individually and introduced them briefly to the group. The participants were from
Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Greece and Cyprus, as well as an observer from Italy,
being in charge of co-organising the next regional seminar in Rome.

Marc Noël, responsible for Finance and Projects at Cooperatives Europe, highlighted the
objectives of the "Social Partner Program - Consolidation" (SPP-C): this program, being part of
the EU support program for social dialogue, and co-financed by the DG Employment, Social
Affairs and Equal Opportunities, aims to improve the qualitative knowledge about the
contents of the social dialogue between co-operative enterprises and workers’
representation at different levels and in different countries of the European Union.

The Social Dialogue is an essential part of the European social model, being the main place
for joint initiatives and negotiations between Trade Unions and Employer organisations.
Therefore, this program is a priority for Cooperatives Europe, intending to become a social
partner and participate within the EU cross-sector dialogue.

Further, Marc Noël explained that the program is a follow-up of the successful previous Social
Partner project. This program took place in 2006-2007, demonstrating the
representativeness and the participation in European sectoral & national SD by the members
of Cooperatives Europe, which are the conditions for a European Employer organisation to
become a European Social Partner.

As the European Commission consideried the SPP project to be an interesting and successful
initiative it was requested to deepen the results of the first project and introduce the SPP-
Consolidation program. The challenges for this new project are therefore to analyse the
difference and added value provided by cooperative organisations, to focus on the work with
trade unions and to determine the themes being discussed in the different national &
European sector social dialogues. Additionally, counterparts for the social dialogue in the
different countries have to be identified, a database of Trade Unionists & Co-operators has
to be built up and a « SD Competence Group » has to be launched, being a reference group
for SD topics related to cooperatives in Europe and supported by a guide on best practices
and a quality report of the different countries.

EU Social Dialogue

Rainer Schlüter, Director of Cooperatives Europe, explained, that Cooperatives Europe is not
yet present in the European Social Dialogue at a cross-sector level, even though there is a
specific difference with other employer organisations. The aim is not only to negotiate and
collaborate with the other European social partners, but also to integrate something different
and to focus on the possible added value which might improve the life of citizens. But as
always, the social partners at European level are only interested in starting a dialogue if it
has already be opened at national level. The starting point is then of course to know how the
social dialogue is functioning at national level, and if the cooperative organisations are for
example present as a separate organisation or are integrated within the other representative
employer organisations.

The results of the first Social Partner program were then presented by Rainer Schlüter in
more detail: the representativeness of Cooperatives Europe in the EU – present in all EU
countries and representing around 80% of the organised co-operative movement, equal to
142 co-operative organisations, 147.500 individual enterprises, 107 million members and 4,4
million jobs – and the participation of the co-operative organisations within their respective
national social dialogue. This participation had been analysed concerning the implication in
the sectoral or intersectoral national SD, the frequency of participation and the nature of the
agreements taken. This opened the door for the next step of analysis, being the added value
that the co-operative organisations bring and could bring into the social dialogue.

Artemis Toumazi, Chief Executive of the Cyrus Cooperative Women's Bank, stated, that the
cooperative enterprise might be again a big player in the future, and especially the banks,
because of the financial crisis. Therefore, the participation of a representative organisation
within the social dialogue at European level is very important, to show and enhance the
presence of this different type of enterprise.

Rainer Schlüter explained the fact that different models of integrating the cooperatives at
the European level are possible. For example the UEAPME, the umbrella organisation for the
small and medium sized enterprises, has a special agreement with Business Europe, or
Eurochambres, which has a position as an observer. Of course, the first option is the most
interesting one, but this has to be discussed with the other Social partners and our member
organisations.

Naturally, the ETUC is not necessarily in favour of having one more employer organisation to
face; this can be understandable, as there are already Business Europe and the CEEP as their
counterparts. Furthermore, there is a need to have a strong counterpart on the employer
organisation, to be able to get fruitful agreements and have interesting discussions. On the
other hand, Rainer Schlüter explained that an alliance of Cooperatives Europe with CEEP
could better balance within the employer’s side the relationship with Business Europe.

Pauline Green, Co-president of Cooperatives Europe, added that especially now, with the
recession across Europe, the Social Dialogue must be reinforced and be used as a
negotiation tool. Social Dialogue will become stronger, or at least it should be. Especially at
this time, as the governments are intervening.

The regulatory process proposed at the enlarged G8 isnot been efficient enough. At the same
time, the strength of the cooperative banks becomes very visible. Deposits for example in
the UK at mutual building societies have tripled. With a letter issued by Cooperatives Europe,
theG8 is urged not to forget the true values of the cooperative enterprises. Social dialogue
should be strengthened now and the European social policy reinforced.

Artemis Toumazi reminded that the cooperatives are also always a very good job creator.
Instead of letting the unemployment rate raise, they reinforce the self-employment. Further,
cooperatives are aware of the importance of gender equality; a development in the
economic sector of women is an important step within it.

Nikos Gkotsinas, responsible for the international relations department at Paseges,

underlined the importance of having a social dialogue with clear goals and objectives.

Pavlos Loukaides, responsible fort he technical assistance to other cooperative enterprises at

the Authority for Supervision and Development of Cooperative Societies, explained that the
objective of a usual bank is the maximisation of profits. A cooperative bank has other goals,
namely to maximise the service to its members. Because of the cooperative values, our
enterprises take the upper hand.

Vladimir Matousek from the Czeck Moravian Trade Union Confederation explained that in the
Czech Republic, the social dialogue is organized under the form of a tripartite one. The
interesting part of it is to participate in the policy making, having a direct impact on the
workers.

The collective agreements are part of the legislation, which is very important, as it protects
many persons at the same time. In the Czech Republic, only the trade unions can negotiate,
and this not only for their members, but for all the workers, as the agreements become
compulsory. The cooperative enterprises have different interests, being very often small
enterprises and having the specific employer-employees-members situation. This is a real
specificity, and therefore it is extremely interesting to be present also at European level.

Vesselina Starcheva, from the Confedederation of Labour, stated that participation at EU

level is very important for the cooperative sector. In the cooperative movement, there is of
course this specific situation of the employees being at the same time the employers. And
over more not only remuneration is important, but rather the working conditions, where
cooperative enterprises can for sure add value within the dialogue.

Countries’ situations concerning social dialogue

Marie Zvolska explained that the cooperatives have a strong voice in the national social
dialogue in the Czech Republic, even though there is no special strategy for them, as they
participate as other employer organisations within the social dialogue. For example the social
cooperatives, working with disabled people are a leading voice for some issues within the
social dialogue, but they act as any employer organisation.

Vladimir Matousek explained the situation of the trade unions in the Czech Republic. The
membership is nowadays growing quite strongly, though it presents 32 federations with 700
000 members. Of course, concerning the social dialogue, the importance is how well the
persons are prepared and to have a strong trade union organization, to be able to generate a
good dialogue.

Vesselina Starcheva explained the Bulgarian case, and that the social dialogue is a quite new
subject in the country. Most of it is functioning at national level on a tripartite model, and 7
agreements ave been signed up to now. Unfortunately, the cooperative movement is not yet
present within the social dialogue, which is also due to the very recent introduction of the
subject.

Zsuzsanna Puskas, from the international relations department of the Afeosz, explained that
3 cooperative organizations are present within the social dialogue in Hungary. These
organizations participate within the social dialogue on the employer side and have very good
relations with the trade unions. For example concerning the strikes, there have been much
less strikes in cooperatives during the last decade than in the for profit private sector.

Nikos Gkotsinas from Paseges, which is the Greek agricultural cooperative sector
organisation, said that there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of agricultural
cooperatives since 1931, the creation of the umbrella organisation. The cooperatives are
present in all different levels of the social dialogue since the last years. They participate
especially through the confederation Paseges in the social dialogue, on themes as education,
consumption, discrimination or disabilities. The organisation takes over the issue of the
cross-sectoral social dialogue for the cooperatives, though being a sectoral organisation.

The Paseges participates through the EESC and the Cogeca (European sector organisation for
agriculture) in the social dialogue on European level. Today, a consortium of different groups
are present within the national Greek social dialogue, including Paseges (agricultural sector),
the cooperative banks, the cooperative insurance sector, the cooperative retail and trade
activity and an institute of cooperative studies. Nevertheless, there are still some individual
cooperative enterprises remaining outside of the dialogue, as they are not represented
within one of these structures.

Georgios Odysseos, representative of the Cypriot trade union SEK, explained that Cyprus had
been a British colony until 1960. After 1960, some major social problems emerged.
Therefore, some agreements have been concluded quite rapidly. Since then, collective
bargaining has helped to built up a longstanding working peace. The only case where
problems might arise is when the workers are not aware of worker codes, which are the basis
of the worker conditions. Further, the agreements become policy or part of the legislation, for
example concerning training or safety.

The SEK is also the only independent organisation of trade unions, and it has always kept its
independence, which is very important. The social partners are very mature, which has to be
preserved. A problem is also that the different committees are sometimes not known.

Pavlos Loukaides, in charge of the technical assistance to cooperative enterprises, explained

the situation of cooperatives in Cyprus. After a period of mergers and regrouping of very
small enterprises, especially in the banking sector, there are nowadays 212 cooperatives in
the free area, 3.150 employees and 650.000 members.

Throughout the multiple mergers of cooperative enterprises, there have been no dismissals.
This is a concrete example of the cooperative difference. The mergers in Cyprus were
necessary due to the new situation of being part of the European Union and to align with the
European criteria and competitive environment. The mergers were not easy to realise, as the
very small cooperatives functioned like that since more than 20 years.

The procedure has been to regroup the small entities and to bring them together in one bank
with for example 6 or 7 different branches. Some people have of course been transferred
from one department to another or to a new one, as for example the audit department.

The whole process has been undertaken in close cooperation by the cooperative
organisations, the trade unions and the cooperative commission. The employees benefitted
as well from this process: there are now higher salaries and a real possibility for a career
structure.

Georgios Odysseos added that the Cypriot trade unions agreed to do this merger, as there
was the promise not to dismiss people and because the process has been very transparent:
'we were very involved within this evolution.'

Pavlos Loukaides stated that there is in Cyprus only individual bargaining, which means that
there exists an agreement for every cooperative enterprise. Of course, the objective is to
have a more or less uniform system, at least concerning some issues as the salaries. If an
agreement is not applied, a sanction can follow: if the direct discussions do not result in an
agreement, measures can be taken.

Some conclusions and further steps

Rainer Schlüter explained that the picture of where our cooperative member organizations
are standing within the social dialogue is getting clearer. In the previous regional seminar in
the Nordic countries, the characteristics of the social dialogue have been detected to be
quite different, as for example the tripartite dialogue is a very rare case.

Cooperatives are also not following all the themes, and are rather focusing on specific
subjects rather than on the general ones as the practices in the different countries have
shown. In the Czech Republic, the cooperatives have a different way of negotiating; in
Hungary, the preparation and coordination of the social dialogue is interesting; in Cyprus the
case of the mergers and in Greece, a sectoral organisation taking over the cross-sectoral
social dialogue is all of interest.

Pauline Green added that it is important to have a cooperative voice which is different.
Therefore, in the UK, they took the decision not to be part of the employer organisation
dominated largely by private companies, but to have their own organisation and voice.

Ray Collins thanked all the participants for their contributions and the Cooperative Central
Bank for co-organising this seminar and their strong support for this initiative.

Marie Zvolska -> send the text on the Czech case

Zsuzsanna Puskas -> send the text on the HU case
Georgios Odysseos, CY, TU -> send the text on the CY case
Pavlos Loukaides, CY -> send the text on the CY case