CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN COOPERATIVES: GOOD PRACTICES ON DIGITAL DISCONNECTION

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of businesses in all company areas. This has led to significant ICT upgrades in companies. Regarding cooperatives, we can observe important shortcomings in some of them. The technological backwardness of cooperatives in the primary sector is made extraordinarily difficult by the worrying connectivity problems that exist in rural Spain and the deficiencies in the creation and attraction of digital talent. The use of eCommerce, digital marketing, social networks, corporate e-mail, or the use of video calls to hold meetings is the new routine of all kinds of companies. In the field of labour relations, the number of people who choose to work remotely has increase exponentially. However, the abusive use of teleworking can lead to hyperconnectivity and health problems caused by a lack of a break from digital workplace tools. In this sense, society needs legal mechanisms to protect workers and facilitate digital disconnection from work outside working hours. The strong impact of ICTs in business and people’s lives has led to the need to regulate new “digital rights” and to develop a “digital ethic” that prevents the violation of these rights, e.g. the protection of personal data or-in this case-the right to digital disconnection of workers. Some countries are starting to regulate this right, although in Europe there is no EU legal framework regulating digital disconnection, but a proposal for a Directive. This proposal establishes minimum standards. However, these standards have already been complied with by some European states for years, through their regulations. Furthermore, we miss the mention of cooperative societies in this proposed Directive. In the case of Spain, the right to rest is regulated by such important regulations as the Spanish Constitution and the Workers’ Statute. On the other hand, the right to digital disconnection is only regulated in one article of the Data Protection Act (Article 88), which has been harshly criticised by the doctrine. It is also criticised that there is no mention of self-employed workers, economically dependent self-employed workers (in Spain they are called TRADEs), or members of cooperatives, especially worrying in the case of worker cooperatives. Likewise, there is no mention of the right to digital disconnection in the State Cooperatives Act or in the regional cooperatives laws (and we have a total of seventeen). With particular reference to worker cooperatives, Article 83 of the State Cooperatives Act refers to the distribution of working hours and breaks to the bylaws, the internal regulations of the cooperative, or the General Assembly, a matter which is highly criticised by the doctrine. The special nature of this figure, worker-members of worker cooperatives, means that they deserve a specific and detailed regulation, as they provide services to the company like any other worker in a comparable situation. if a non-partner and a working partner provide work, carry out the same tasks, and use the company’s digital tools at the same time and manner, the risks for both persons are the same. For this reason, it would be discriminatory not to apply the right to digital disconnection for working partners in this type of cooperative. In any case, the Spanish legislator has applied the extension to all worker-members of cooperatives of the protection granted to non-member workers on many occasions. Because of that, we understand that a right as transcendental as the right to digital disconnection from work must be applied to any person who works in the cooperative (that is, worker-members and non-member workers). Relative to the “COVID-19” regulations, telework was prioritised in Spain over other employment measures. In the regulation governing teleworking, there is a brief reference to digital disconnection in the field of occupational risk prevention. To sum up, Spain needs greater and more appropriate regulation of this right, adapting it to the diversity of companies existing in Spain, including cooperatives. Secondly, cooperative societies are governed by guiding principles that are closely related to the Sustainable Development Goals. The principle of concern for the community is closely related to Goal 8 on decent work, which can be directly linked to the right to digital disconnection. Work cannot be decent and dignified if it infringes on the security of the worker. Hyperconnectivity and lack of rest lead to health problems for workers (physically and mentally). In the case of teleworkers, a blurring borderline between work and personal life can cause many problems, including in their family. If workers do not take a digital break from work, they can suffer from serious illnesses such as depression or technostress, and some of them may become workaholics. In conclusion, there will be no decent work without digital disconnection from work. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the right to digital disconnection is also relevant to Goal 5 on gender equality. Employment cannot be conceived as decent or sustainable if it does not include half of humanity in terms of equal treatment and opportunities. In the field of gender equality, the digital disconnection from work helps to achieve a better reconciliation of family, professional and personal life for workers, being women particularly affected by the lack of rest due to the traditional role they have been assigned as “people who care the rest of the family members”. As mentioned above, they work for the cooperative like any other non-member worker with similar functions, so they will have to apply any provisions regarding the reconciliation of work and family life. Therefore, the importance of the right to digital disconnection from work for workers’ health, for work-life balance, for gender equality, for sustainable development, and economic growth makes it necessary an urgent updating of the Spanish regulations. Finally, Article 88 of the Data Protection Act, which regulates the right to digital disconnection, refers to collective bargaining. Collective agreements hardly contain any reference to the aforementioned regulation, so they are of little use. On the contrary, we advocate the development of internal digital disconnection protocols and policies in cooperatives. These protocols must be adapted to the conditions of each cooperative, to its activity, and, of course, to its different members (worker-members, non-member workers, etc.). In addition, they should include real and achievable policies, actions that favour equal opportunities, and practices that allow a better work/non-work life balance for those who choose to telework.