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The Employee Ownership Update
Loren Rodgers
March 2, 2015

Japan Launches Employee Ownership Association
Although Japan has long been a pioneer in employee engagement and decentralized process management, it has not had a significant number of employee-owned businesses. The newly formed Japan Employee Ownership Association (JEOA) aims to change that through publications, case studies, and consulting. The NCEO is honored to help support the JEOA. If your employee-owned company has a significant presence in Japan and you would be interested in learning more about the JEOA, please contact Loren Rodgers (LRodgers@nceo.org).Will Charlie Hebdo Become Employee-Owned?
The staff of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo proposed that the newspaper become a worker cooperative, partly in order to give its entire staff a voice in how the newspaper uses the substantial profits it has earned from the spike in sales following the attacks on its office on January 7. The current shareholders, however, do not seem open to the idea. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, one of the two surviving shareholders, Laurent Sourisseau, responded to the proposal by saying, "It's completely out of the question" before abruptly leaving the meeting.New York City Passes Bill to Promote Worker Cooperatives
On February 26, 2015 New York City Council passed legislation requiring annual reports on the amount of goods and services the city purchases from worker-controlled businesses and aiming to reduce barriers for worker cooperatives to participate in city procurement. The text of the bill and a description of the proceedings are available online.Fill Out Our ESOP Transaction Survey
Thank you to the many companies who have already filled out the first-ever ESOP transaction survey. Company responses help us answer questions no one has been able to answer before, such as:- What percentage of shares does an ESOP typically own following an initial transaction?
- How many transactions involve an external trustee?
- Do most companies get fairness opinions?
- What's the average number of months to complete the transaction?
Complete the survey here. It should take no more than 15 minutes and requires minimal research, if any.
Your responses will be completely confidential, and the NCEO will only release aggregate results to avoid any exposure for individual companies or even small groups of companies.