Not a cooperative – that means shares for employees. And it doesn’t exclude shareholders from a return on investment either, it just means that directors of a company, who already have a fidiciary duty to the company and shareholders laid down in law, would also have a fidiciary duty of care to their employees that was laid above that of shareholders. It’s pretty simple attitude change and one that a lot of companies, with shareholders, already follow – Singletrack included. Shareholders still get a return but it generally isn’t at the levels of a company that considers employees as tradable/disposable assets/expenses.
It moves a company away from the desire to make profit for the sole benefit of shareholders to making profit in order to provide stable employment and benefits to employees AS WELL AS shareholders.
End result is a more stable company, happier more secure employees, and a lower but less risky and volatile return for shareholders.
It’s an ideology that can be laid down in a legislature if enough effort is put into it.
In simple terms it’s a marriage of profit lead capitalism and socialist principals of workers rights. As far as I can can tell there’s been too much focus on one or the other (capitalism and growth of profits and dividends or socialism that eschews profit as something bad and evil). The solution is, as it tends to be, somewhere in the middle… But not in a limp Lib Dem way 🙂
….and that’s as publicly political as I am going to be today 🙂