Recovered enterprises in Italy

This report focuses on the analysis of Workers’ Buyouts (WBOs), or the recovery of enterprises by workers, turning them into worker cooperatives. It shows how, during the economic crisis, workers tend to adopt solidarity management policies to preserve employment, prioritizing over profits.

This is a phenomenon of great significance, especially considering the current economic environment. The report explores WBO in Italy, providing data on the worker cooperatives that have emerged from this process, with the aim of assessing their sustainability over time and the actual opportunity for workers. Through research conducted under the Marcora Law, the report also presents the characteristics of recovered worker cooperatives, analyzing the buyout process and the policies adopted after recovery.

This paper is part of the Third Euricse | 2015 report “Cooperative Economy. Relevance, evolution and new frontiers of Italian cooperation“.