Work integration policies and social economy enterprises in Spain and the region of Catalonia

4. Work integration social enterprises in Spain –  empresa de inserción (WISE): for people at risk of exclusion

Employment Integration Enterprises established by Law 44/2007-provide employment mainly to persons at risk of social exclusion, and  has to be accredited by the public social services responsible for each type of exclusion.

It shall be considered a insertion company any legally constituted trading company or co-operative society which, properly qualified by the competent regional authorities, carries out any economic activity involving the production of assets and services, whose corporate purpose is the integration and socio-occupational formation of people in a situation of social exclusion as a transition to ordinary employment.

Insertion companies must comply, as a minimum, with the following requirements:

  • They must be promoted and owned by one or more promoting entities that are non profit. This participation shall be at least 51% of the share capital in the case of commercial companies. In the case of Co-operatives and Worker Owned Companies, this shareholding must be within the maximum limits set out in the different legislations applicable to the collaborating or associated partners.
  • Be registered in the Register corresponding to their legal form, as well as in the Administrative Register of Insertion Companies of the Autonomous Community.
  • Maintain an annual percentage of workers in the process of insertion, regardless of the type of contract, of at least 30% during the first three years of activity and of at least 50% of the total workforce from the fourth year onwards, and the number of such workers may not be less than two.
  • These social enterprises need to reinvest 80% or more of the available results or surpluses in the improvement or increase of their employment generation capacities and should not carry out any economic activity that is not directly related to their social goals.  
  • To present an annual Social Balance Sheet of the company’s activity that includes the economic and social report, the degree of insertion in the ordinary labour market and the composition of the workforce, information on the insertion tasks carried out and the forecasts for the next financial year.
  • These enterprises should provide the necessary orientation and education to allow their employees to integrate into the open labour market. They must have the necessary means to comply with the commitments derived from the social and labour insertion itineraries.

Insertion enterprises operate according to market rules and generally in cooperation with an NGO or local association. Insertion firms have played a key role in the development of tailor-made itineraries in Spain, working in close cooperation with associations, NGO´s and local authorities.[1]

[1] MUTUAL LEARNING PROGRAMME: PEER COUNTRY COMMENTS PAPER – SPAIN Insertion Itineraries in Spain Peer Review 2009

  • Typology of disadvantaged workers employed.

Insertion companies may hire as workers unemployed people in a situation of social exclusion and registered with the Public Employment Services, with special difficulties for their integration into the labour market, who are included in any of these groups:

  • Recipients of Minimum Insertion Income, or any other benefit of the same or similar nature, according to the denomination adopted in each Autonomous Community, as well as the members of the cohabitation unit who are beneficiaries of them.
  • Persons who cannot access the benefits referred to in the previous paragraph, for any of the following reasons: Lack of the required period of residence or census registration, or for the constitution of the Receiving Unit. Having exhausted the maximum period of receipt legally established.
  • Young people over the age of eighteen and under the age of thirty, from Institutions for the Protection of Minors.
  • People with drug addiction problems or other addictive disorders who are in the process of rehabilitation or social reintegration.
  • Prison inmates whose prison situation allows them access to employment and whose employment relationship is not included in the scope of application of the special employment relationship regulated in article 1 of Royal Decree 782/2001, of 6 July, as well as conditionally released and former inmates.
  • Inmate minors included in the scope of application of Organic Law 5/2000, of 12 January, Regulating the Criminal Responsibility of Minors, whose situation allows them access to employment and whose employment relationship is not included in the scope of application of the special employment relationship referred to in Article 53.4 of the Regulations of the aforementioned Law, approved by Royal Decree 1774/2004, of 30 July, as well as those on probation and former inmates.

The situation of exclusion must be accredited by the competent Public Social Services.

•       The law targets persons receiving minimum income of insertion or those in need but not eligible for any minimum income, people between 18 and 30 years coming from child protection agencies, people with addiction problems or incarcerated persons.

  • Economic fields of activity – main fields of activity on which WISEs operate in your country/region

The main activity in the insertion companies is recycling, waste pickers and paper collection with 30% of the total, followed by personal services. The work of Marcuello et al (2008) (on a total of 212 EIs) also shows the predominance of the recycling sector with 22%, personal services and home help activities with 17%, and the construction sector and its branches with 13%. The numbers are somewhat higher in the study of the Un Sol Mon Foundation (2007) for 2006 where 50% belong to the recycling sector, 30% to the construction sector, 23% to personal services and 22% to business services.

Predominant model of integration*

  •  creation of transitional occupations that provide work experience and on-the-job training with a view to supporting the integration of the target group in the open labour market. Training periods before recruitment by the same WISE or by other employers – only partially paid by the same WISE or by public entities – are in this case posible. – A minimum of 6 to 12 e months and a maximum of three years of employment.
  • creation of permanent jobs that are sustainable alternatives for workers disadvantaged in the open labour market.

It is a recommendation for public authorities to reserve public contracts to WISES or to have social clauses. 

4.1 Special employment centres for social initiative (Centros especiales de empleo, CEE)

These entities were initially established by Law 13/1982 for the social integration of people with disabilities. They perform productive work, participate in commercial operations and aim at providing remunerated employment and personal and social services for workers with disabilities, who must constitute at least 70% of their staff.

CEEs seek to integrate the highest possible number of people with disabilities into the labour market. Recently, Law 9/2017 on public procurement has modified the previous laws to specify as special employment centres “of social initiative” those promoted and participated by non-profit organisations or that have their social aim recognised in their statutes, differentiating them from CEES of business initiative that seek to maximise benefits through tax support for hiring people with disabilities.

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