A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #349 - Trade unionism, Social and solidarity economy: Smart, or betraying the idea of social cooperative (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Promises only bind those who believe them. And Smart, which wanted to be 
an alternative to Uberization, showed this by laying off the majority of 
its employees in 2022. Part of a mutualist idea, this cooperative set 
out to conquer the markets before fleeing his responsibilities. ---- 
Smart is a Franco-Belgian cooperative which, at its head office in 
Lille, is structured as a cooperative society of collective interest 
(Scic). It is therefore a classic company with a cooperative hat - a 
veneer, the evil tongues will say.
What Smart offers is "salary portage". Self-employed workers who do not 
want to be self-employed are legally employed by Smart, which allows 
them to contribute to unemployment, retirement, health insurance, etc. 
In the process, Smart collects a commission.

For the theory: very good. In reality, we are far from the mark: 
incompetence, perpetual disorganization, overcommunication, permanent 
employees neglected under the guise of "team autonomy", etc. The list of 
grievances is long.

During 2022, it's a shock: Smart announces a plan to lay off 88% of 
permanent employees. Officially, the health crisis and a legal conflict 
with Pôle Emploi Spectacle are being blamed; in reality Smart is 
withdrawing from France after years of deficit, and letting down the 
employees.

"Experimentation", an alibi
But what pushed this flatly capitalist company to take advantage of the 
"social and solidarity economy" (ESS) and to claim to "remake the world 
of work"?

First, this made it possible to carry out "social experimentation", a 
concept widespread in the sector, which consists of testing practices at 
the borders of legality, then seeking to inject them into the law - 
hence, by example, the ESS law of July 31, 2014. "Experimentation" 
provides an alibi to justify perpetual amateurism, then invoke fate when 
getting rid of those we have taken too far into the adventure.

Then, it's rewarding: the image of a democratic cooperative with a 
flashy pink logo allows it to differentiate itself from other umbrella 
companies. The seduction operation, among the permanent staff, worked 
for a while. In democracy, the weight of votes is distributed according 
to colleges. In short, all 8,750 members only weigh 25% of the decision, 
whereas five partners or financiers weigh 50%. It is therefore not 
surprising that at the AGM of November 21, 2021, only 78 members took 
part in the vote.

Finally, the cooperative structuring in no way prevented Smart Belgium 
from dissociating itself from Smart France at the time of the layoff 
plan, led by a judicial administrator, on the exclusive perimeter of the 
bankrupt French subsidiary, without demanding accountability from the 
house. -Belgian mother, beneficiary for the financial year. She washed 
her hands of it.

Despite these setbacks, Smart's ambition is intact. Denouncing its 
social-washing does not mean denouncing the entire ESS in itself - even 
if we can laugh at its claim to be an alternative to private capitalism 
and the State. There are strong forces and hopes in this sector, but the 
safeguards are totally insufficient to prevent its exploitation by venal 
opportunists.

A former Smart employee

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Economie-sociale-et-solidaire-Smart-ou-trahir-l-idee-de-cooperative-sociale
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