Miliband unveils plans to allow workers to buy out companies and turn them into co-ops

Labour want workers to get automatic rights to buy out firms if they go up for sale or floated on the stock market, according to Ed Miliband. The new plans would mean employees have a statutory right to the opportunity to turn their company into a co-operative.

In an article for Co-op News today, the Labour leader says he a “proud member of the Co-operative Party” and that he wants to “put co-operative values at the heart of Labour’s platform for government.”

He writes:

“I am determined to ensure that the election of the next Labour and Co-operative government marks the beginning of a new culture of co-operative entrepreneurship in the UK, with a growing co-operative, mutual and employee-owned sector. This will help to raise productivity and ensure that more working people are able to reap the rewards of economic success.”

Miliband argues that employee buyouts are often favoured by departing business chiefs, as they ensure that the their successors have “genuine interest in an enterprise’s long-term success”. He pledges to explore handing workers the right to request ownership:

“Employee buyouts show how self-help and mutuality can build resilience into our economy, saving productive businesses and decent work. These buyouts can be an attractive route for business succession because they transfer ownership to people with a genuine interest in an enterprise’s long-term success. That’s why we should explore giving employees a statutory right to request employee ownership during business succession.”

Miliband’s intervention comes during a week in which he has come under fire for supposed “anti-business” leanings. However, in an article for LabourList yesterday, business leader John Mills argues that the attacks are a result of a Conservative Party that is “staring defeat in the face”.