SCOTTISH Labour leadership contender Richard Leonard wants workers to have the legal right to buy businesses which employ them if they are being sold or if the workforce is made redundant.
He is calling on Holyrood to pass legislation giving the "statutory and preferential right" for employees to buy firms in these circumstances, similar to existing laws in France and parts of Spain.
Leonard, an ally of UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, is standing against Glasgow MSP Anas Sarwar in the contest to succeed Kezia Dugdale.
Setting out his prospectus in the latest edition of the Scottish Left Review Leonard wrote: “If we can have a community right to buy land, why can’t we have workers’ rights to buy business?
“But why shouldn’t those who create the wealth have a right to own the wealth they create? There are sound industrial and economic reasons to promote worker ownership to boost employment and to forge an alternative to footloose capitalism.
"But there are underlying political and social reasons too.”
The Central Scotland MSP adds: "It is time we looked at different frameworks and ownership structures in order to build up resilience to takeovers and build in greater democracy and accountability to the economic system."
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