to participate
employees in the capital has a long Tradition in some companies. Thomas Sauer know to report much of it, he is for 29 years at today’s Evonik group and its predecessors employed. In the almost three decades of Sauer’s employer had offered almost all of the employees share option programmes or other forms of equity participation such as profit-sharing rights. “The Instrument contributes greatly to employee recruitment and retention,” says Sauer, the Chairman of the so-called total speaker Committee in the Evonik group and for all topics, the executives responsible.
oxygen is the only supporter of employees is certainly not investments. The idea finds more and more corporate sponsors. “Employee share ownership can increase the employees identify with your company. You can promote a corporate culture based on partnership and a further building block for retirement,“ says Gerhard Kronisch, managing Director of the Association for executives in the chemical industry (VAA). Evonik Manager, says Sauer: “Who is involved in the risk of a company, considered more accurate, as he has in the company, and with more commitment.”
The Association of employee participation (AGP) estimates that approximately 3900 companies involve their employees in the capital, spread over 700 joint-stock companies and 3200 medium-sized enterprises in the legal form of a GmbH or a partnership. “In almost all industries, the is broadly distributed,” says Dirk Lambach by the AGP. “However, few, if any, are there in the catering, hotel industry, health care and public service.”
“The participants come from all hierarchies”
to make employees to co-entrepreneurs, seems to be a smart Option to reduce the inequality between labour and capital. In contrast to the employers, the trade unions, however, are not only fire and flame. Rainald Thannisch by the German trade Union Confederation says: “For employees, this can be very interesting, because you get a share of the capital income, which is good distribution policy.” The capital participation should be offered in addition to the respective wage. Trade unionists such as Thannisch also ask that the co-determination rights of the works Council are respected, and point to the double risk, to which the employee would be exposed to in the event of a bankruptcy. You would lose not only their jobs but also their capital contributions in the company.
In the case of Evonik acquire, according to the Manager pissed every year about 40 percent of the global 33.000 employees share. “The participants come from all hierarchies, from production workers to Top executives are all in on it,” he says. The model: For each two purchased shares to the company, a third as a gift. “So you can build up over the years, a significant capital stock,” says Sauer, “even in times of crisis.” Even with low rates in the Corona-the time the employee would have achieved a return on investment.
this finding is Supported by a study by the consulting firm hkp and the German share Institute. “95 percent of the local listed companies with employee participation, were able to achieve in a ten-year period of positive returns for these programs and crises in the long term, compensate for,” says Petra Knab-Hägele, compensation expert at ICPs.
