How would the UK economy be transformed if more businesses were worker and employee owned? This was one question posed in an episode of More Than A Shop, a podcast series produced as a collaborative effort between Co-operatives UK, the Co-operative College, the Co-operative Heritage Trust, Co-op Press and the Co-op Group.
Recorded before the coronavirus pandemic – but still very relevant in the context of Covid-19 – it saw presenter Elizabeth Alker joined by Beau Bulman from worker co-op Suma Wholefoods and James Wright from Co-operatives UK. Mr Bulman, whose role of people development manager resembles that of an HR manager, explained why Suma chose a different term for the job.
“Humans are not just resources. They are much more than that,” he says. In addition to doing office work, he helps out in the warehouse. When recruiting, Suma, which is Europe’s largest equal-pay employer, usually looks for people with co-operative values. The co-op currently employs 300 people, 200 of whom are members. They take part in decisions through quarterly meetings and a board and members’ council structure. Workers are paid equal amounts for the hours they work but some choose to work longer hours to earn more. Others want to work the minimum amount of hours.
“We do sometimes make decisions by majority vote. And often that majority is highest, like 75% majority. But we look for consensus,” says Mr Bulman, acknowledging that not all employee-owned businesses have Suma’s governance structure or equal pay policy.
“There are a lot of different ways to do worker ownership,” adds James Wright, policy officer at Co-operatives UK. “There’s a lot of flexibility in terms of the legal arrangement, how worker ownership comes about in the first place, and how things are organised day to day. But generally speaking, if the business is worker-owned from the outset, the likelihood is that it’s going to be a very democratic worker co-op with lots of innovation in organisation management.”
Another well-known model is the John Lewis Partnership; JLP did not start out as a worker co-op but converted to employee ownership.
“If it’s a more established business that converts to employee ownership, they tend to use a slightly more complicated legal arrangement,” says Mr Wright. “The degree of employee control varies. And they might also inherit some more traditional practices and ways of working, but even most of those businesses tend to be quite innovative and forward thinking and become more so over time.”
Asked to identify the main challenges for the sector, both guests pointed to a lack of awareness about co-ops and employee-owned businesses.
“People don’t really know what co-ops are. We’re not really thought of by people setting up new businesses as an option,” says Mr Bulman. He thinks the problem goes back to the 1980s when the idea of society was being challenged.
James Wright agrees: “The evidence we have suggests there’s a growing interest in society, in businesses doing things differently and working more collaboratively, more ethically, more justly. The problem is that the people who are interested in doing that … tend to find out about [co-ops] by chance rather than because the system actually helps them do it.” This is despite the fact that evidence suggests co-op start-ups are more resilient than non co-op start-ups, and that worker control is linked to worker wellbeing and improved business performance.
The episode also featured Leeds Bread Co‑op, a worker-owned co‑operative bakery in Leeds.
Lizzie Fellows, who has been at the co-op since 2013, deals with finance and HR. She explains: “There are no managers or bosses that come in and tell us what to do. We work on a consensus decision-making basis, so every member is a director. We have a staff team of about 30, and that includes a mix of contracted and casual staff.
“Every member of staff gets the same basic pay. We have a small-enhanced salary for members of the co-op. So for four hours a week we have an additional 25% of basic pay, which gets paid. But all members of staff basically come in on the same rate of pay.
“The idea is that if everyone’s contributing to making the business a success, then all of our wages go up. So everyone has equal motivation. We’re all here for reasons beyond just the money. But essentially, we’re all here for employment as well. And that’s one of our values as a business: to be a good workplace and to provide an ethical, enjoyable livelihood for people.”
Beau Bulman agrees: “I think having more people engaged in decision making in their work actually makes their work better. And that makes society better; people are happier to go to work. They’re not just doing it to put money in the pocket of one man – and it is usually a man, unfortunately – but to develop themselves. It’s got to be laudable.”
So how can co-ops make themselves more visible? Mr Bulman thinks the movement often fails to reach those outside it. “We’re very good at preaching to the converted,” he says, “but beyond that, it’s getting ourselves out there, getting our products out there, and telling our story through our products and our different channels.”
James Wright agrees that there is a new generation of people coming through who, for very good reasons, do think differently about how the world should work. “At the moment they’re perhaps thrashing around vaguely looking for something different. If we can put the co-op model in front of them as one solution to change the world and the way they want to change it, then we will be reaching a much bigger audience than we are now,” he says.
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