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| Democracy in the Workplace; Employee Ownership in Business | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 21 2007, 07:01 AM (596 Views) | |
| the.smoking.gnu | Jul 21 2007, 07:01 AM Post #1 |
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Newbie
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Few people like the idea of working for a large corporate, with their focus on shareholder profit (in fact maximising share holder profit is a legal obligation for a corporation) rather than the rewarding those who actually do the work, but what other choice do we have? If democracy is so great why are we required to spend half our waking lives (at work) in some sort of throwback to feudalism? Perhaps the answer to both these questions, lies in the idea of employee owned businesses after all the mechanism is already in place, if all Wolseley employees purchased the maximum number of shares permitted through the Employee Share Option Plan (ESOP) then this would be a sufficient proportion of shares to force employee representation on the Board of Directors. Isn't it about time we all stopping being passengers in our own lives? Links: http://www.employeeownershipfoundation.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee-owned_corporation |
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| spareparts | Jul 22 2007, 12:44 AM Post #2 |
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if wolseley employees bought the maximum share entitlement available to them.. A) what the hell would we live on?? and The powers that be, who earn more would probably buy more shares too..The ESOP is a way of making money for the masses with any luck, not for the plebs to own the company! If you want to own the company, then I guess your better off starting your own business.. |
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| wolseleyobserver | Jul 22 2007, 05:29 PM Post #3 |
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:rolleyes: The powers that be don't usuaally have a problem in getting more shares - have you seen the executive share options being awarded and cashed in on a regular basis. The link below gives updates on wolseley news as issued to the stock exchange: emailalert@hemscott.co.uk |
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| Tofsman | Aug 12 2007, 02:33 PM Post #4 |
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I agree with much of the content of the original post although the part on the ESOP is misleading (the links however are worth investigating). The idea of an employee owned business (or self owned business - a less common term but one I prefer) is a fairly simple concept. There are many different versions of a SOB from traditional Workers' Councils (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_council) to trusts & partnerships (An example: http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk). I would use an example of the latter as, whilst it may or may not be the best structure, it is, in my opinion, the one that is easiest to introduce and maintain in the current business world. Traditional Structure of a Corporate Beast 1. Shareholders/Owners Appoints 2. Board of Directors Appoints 3. CEO/MD Appoints 4. Management Hired and fired on a resource basis 5. Workers The Share Holders have a single aim to make money The Board of Directors and the CEO/MD have a legal obligation to use the business as a tool to remove capital from the environment (local/national/international area, work force etc) and transfer this to the owners. Simple Self Owned Business 1. Trust owns the business Run by 2.Trustees Appoint 3. CEO/MD Appoints 4. Management Assists 5. Workers Elect the trustees from amongst their own ranks All members have a single vote & an equal share in the business Management may often be by appointment, rotation or self managed teams (suitable for smaller teams) Any profit or more accurately dividends are shared equally between members Members/Workers have the ability for a vote of no confidence in either or both the Trustees and CEO/MD. Serving as a trustee is part-time (i.e. still do your normal job) for a fixed period only (often a good idea is that anyone who has been elected cannot stand in the next election, but can then stand in the subsequent election. Many variations & details exist but I think these are best worked out in practice, focus is best at this point on getting any structure resembling this into place as any iof them are better than the current one! |
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The powers that be, who earn more would probably buy more shares too..
8:39 AM Jul 11