Business Associations

Business Associations

Business Associations may be defined as "private organizations based on agreements between the companies and members formally and publicly unite to promote the achievement of favorable conditions for the group to support each other and to their interests in a field and given territory with the aim of developing one or more the following functions:

-  The labor collective bargaining;

-  The approach of collective labor disputes;

-  Social dialogue, and

-  Institutional participation in public Administrations

-  Work to defend the general interests of employers. "

 Territorial And Sectoral

As indicated by the very definition of the Business Association, these organizations come together to perform or obtain a field and ends in a given territory.

Therefore, the nature of the business associations will be defined by two basic criteria that are coming out in the Statutes of the Association, and listed below:

  Sectoral

Territorial character

The conjunction of these two criteria define what we call the "field of the Association."

Regarding the first criterion, the sector, employers may establish in each industry, associations of their choosing. We understand as a branch of activity, the level of economic performance, the profession or another similar concept that intends to contact the relevant association.

The second criterion refers to the ability of entrepreneurs to develop their activities in a given area to come together to achieve specific purposes.

 Thus, business associations, according to their territorial nature, may be a state level, when developing their roles primarily outside the territorial scope of an autonomous, or autonomous, when its functions are carried out mainly in the territory of the former. This distinction, in response to the territorial nature of the associations, will have important effects in determining the appropriate registry to register the association and other acts registered.

Similarly, the specific delimitation of the economic sector and in particular, the activities to be developed by the Association in the Constitution, this is their sectoral level, will have a significant impact since the granting of certain tax exemptions dependent and is conditioned by such activities.

The most peculiar business associations probably lies in the need to combine the above two criteria, territorial and sectoral, to obtain the highest possible efficiency in the defense of the interests they represent. This normally takes place through the union of sectoral associations based in the same territory by similar associative combinations to form federations and even unions of the latter, called confederations.