Working for a co-operative?
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Darkslider

Original Poster:

3,084 posts

211 months

Wednesday 13th January 2021
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Been asked if I'm interested in joining a local co-operative, small team of 15 -20 from what I can make out. The business has been thriving during covid with increased demand for construction materials from the diy and home improvements in 2020, and have invested significantly in some new production machinery necessitating an extra member of staff.

Info on these types of setups is hard to find so wondering if anyone has any experience or advice? One thing I'm not sure on is remuneration, it looks like they pay national living wage with an annual performance based dividend, so could be tricky to nail down a definitive salary figure?

Any other questions I should be asking or research I should do before popping in for a chat? (Not sure they're so formal as to conduct interviews if I'm honest!)

Ussrcossack

890 posts

64 months

Friday 15th January 2021
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Search suma foods.

Long establish co up c

They might have some job adverts.
Everyone paid same and move around jobs too

22

2,740 posts

159 months

Friday 15th January 2021
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Not a co-op but I run an employee-owned company (EOT). Staff wages aren't great, but we can pay tax-free bonuses up to £3600 (NI still payable).

We are paying the 'agreed' sale price of the business to the founder (from trading profits) for a while yet, so bonuses have been more like £1000-£1500 but we have potential to very much change the overall package for staff further down the line.

Darkslider

Original Poster:

3,084 posts

211 months

Saturday 16th January 2021
quotequote all
22 said:
Not a co-op but I run an employee-owned company (EOT). Staff wages aren't great, but we can pay tax-free bonuses up to £3600 (NI still payable).

We are paying the 'agreed' sale price of the business to the founder (from trading profits) for a while yet, so bonuses have been more like £1000-£1500 but we have potential to very much change the overall package for staff further down the line.
Thanks for your reply. The impression I've been given via an Informal phone chat is that the pay is national living wage through the year with a dividend at the end based on how well the company has performed, but if you're example is typical then I'm going to need a much bigger dividend payment than £3600 to bring the salary in line with previous earnings so it might be a non starter.