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The Employee Ownership Update
Loren Rodgers
September 4, 2012
Employee Ownership in Republican Platform
The 2012 Republican Party platform, We Believe in America, explicitly endorses employee ownership:Republicans believe that the employer-employee relationship of the future will be built upon employee empowerment and workplace flexibility, which is why Republicans support employee ownership. We believe employee stock ownership plans create capitalists and expand the ownership of private property and are therefore the essence of a high-performing free enterprise economy, which creates opportunity for those who work and honors those values that have made our nation so strong.There has been essentially no reaction in the press to this part of the Republican platform, other than a left-leaning news site that mistakenly referred to the Republican platform as supporting stock options. The platform of the Democratic Party, released on Monday, does not make any reference to employee ownership.
India Disallows Sale of Stock Options on Secondary Markets
The Indian Security and Exchange Board issued a new rule that will prohibit the sale of employee stock options on secondary markets. The board was concerned that some employee welfare plans were using the markets to accumulate significant amounts of shares to reduce the amount of stock that would be available in regular markets. (From the NCEO's Equity Compensation Report, available in the members-only area of our Web site.)Workforce Investment Act for ESOP Feasibility
The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration released Training and Employment Notice 09-12 on layoff aversion. It notes that Rapid Response funding under the Workforce Investment Act can be used for "Conducting prefeasibility or company valuation studies to determine the possibility for employee buyouts or Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), or more commonly, the sustainability of the company with new products, retooled production processes, or new customers and markets." The DOL indicates that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership will support this effort.Upcoming Events
The Beyster Institute at UC San Diego's Rady School of Business will host an intensive management training program from October 7 to 10. The training will cover issues specific to employee ownership, including legal and regulatory challenges, marketing, financial management, and the practical application of employee ownership in the operation of the business.The Vermont Employee Ownership Center will host a workshop on business succession and employee ownership at Carris Reels in Proctor, VT, on October 3.
