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Tory Communism?

20 February 2010

The Conservatives want public sector workers to have the right to form employee owned co-operatives to take over the services they deliver. In a radio interview George Osborne says these co-ops will have a right to select their bosses.

This proposal was announced on 15 February.

In setting out the proposal George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, stated:

"The new right to form employee owned co-operatives will apply throughout the vast majority of the public sector – including JobCentre Plus offices, community nursing teams and primary schools.

Employee owned co-operatives will continue to be funded by the state so long as they meet national standards, but will be freed from centralised bureaucracy and political micromanagement.

They will be not-for-profit organisations - any financial surpluses will be reinvested into the service and the staff who work there, rather than distributed to external shareholders."

In a Radio 4 interview on the same day, George Osborne accepted that these co-ops would have the right to get rid of the existing managers of the service that was being incorporated into a co-operative and replace them with managers of their choice.

So will it be a case of Tories in, Bosses out? We shall see.
 

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