Regime jurídico das cooperativas de trabalho em Portugal: estado da arte e linhas de reforma

This paper offers reform lines of the legal regime of worker cooperatives, which take into account the specific status of co-operator-worker. The legislative proposals are outlined on the basis of the conclusions drawn from the study on «Employment relations in Portuguese cooperatives», held under the International Program entitled «Legal status of workers – members of cooperatives and other organizations of the social and solidarity economy”. The data of the empirical study of the project demonstrate the existence of self-regulation by the cooperatives, which has translated into the application to workers co-operators of a labour law regime. Moreover, the analysis of the Portuguese doctrine and jurisprudence produced on the labour relations in the cooperatives evidenced the existence of great oscillations as to the question of the legal nature of the bond between a co-operator worker and a cooperative.