"Labour Foundations: A tool for channelling business social responsibility”

Participants: Jesús R. Mercader Uguina; Francisco J. Gómez Abelleira, José Manuel Busto, Fernando Peña, Patricia Nieto

Years of execution: 2007 and 2008

 

The main objective of this study is to carry out an in-depth analysis of labour foundations in Spanish law and also comparative law through an exhaustive study of the legislation applicable to this type of foundation. Both aspects allow us, on the one hand, to test the suitability of the regulation of foundations in relation to production changes, its insufficiencies, needs and potentialities, and on the other hand, to discover, analyse, and evaluate current experiences and models in other countries.

Results of the investigation

 

Labour foundations which currently act in the legal and economic trades, in addition to objectives like training workers, work towards improving workers' living conditions, guaranteeing their professional qualifications, their rapid insertion in the labour market, etc., as well as other purposes such as energy assessment and protection of the environment (for example, the Labour Foundation for Concrete and the Environment), and the promotion of a specific type of services (advanced telecommunications services between companies and business entities, in the Foundation for Information Technology). Therefore, it makes it easier that the heterogeneous nature of the aims and objectives within labour foundations (which could probably increase given the many ramifications that can be involved in the development of social responsibility in a company) turn out to be acceptable in the current situation. A specific regulation created outside the framework of the common law on foundations would have difficulty encompassing the multiple practical applications of the phenomenon of labour foundations (even though it may be a good regulation, which, of course, is not guaranteed). It cannot be chance that labour foundations regulate themselves based on an international regulation, the Model Law of the European Centre of Foundations, in the same way in which our national legislator has decided to regulate them.

Financing entities: Department for Self Employment, Social Economy and European Social Fund of the Ministry for Work and Social Affairs and the Spanish Association of Foundations.

Run by Professor Dr. D. Jesús R. Mercader Uguina (Professor of Labour Law and Social Security). Universidad de Carlos III.

• Convocatoria: BOE de 4 de abril de 2006
• Resolución: BOE de 24 de noviembre de 2006