MODEL
PLANS
Several
model plans are
well adequate for employee share ownership and financial
participation. Model plans can facilitate things
for companies, for employees and for social
partners, making the conception and design of
employee share ownership and financial participation
plans easier. They can also be used by new countries,
making things easier for policy makers and legislation.
Finally, they can help all countries of the
European Union to use coherent practices.
The
ESOP-model plan from the USA is one of the bests,
as well as the Spanish "sociedades laborales"
(employee-owned companies).
You can get an excellent model plan for ESOPs
from the NCEO (National Center for Employee
Ownership) - see on page http://www.nceo.org/pubs/model_esop.html
About
the Spanish sociedades laborales, you can get
all information and documents in several languages
on our dedicated website on www.sociedades-laborales.net
At the beginning, this Spanish model
was designed for the rescue of failing enterprises
and transfers of businesses; it was later extended
to starting companies. Spain has now some 20.000
sociedades laborales with some 110.000 employees.
See also:
Anthony
Jensen, University of Sydney - Spain pioneers
Sustainable Democratic Corporate Governance
Business Model with Sociedades Laborales
Furthermore,
a "High Level Experts Group" committed
by the European Commission in 2003 gave some
attention to the idea of a model plan for transnational
financial participation plans in the European
Union. Following this opinion, the IAFP (International
Association for Financial Participation) organised
a conference in Brussels on September 28-29,
2005. The conference was able to discuss a draft
report on the "common
elements of an adaptable model plan for financial
participation in the European Union".
Of course, this adaptable model plan is based
on the set of eight principles that the European
Commission defined some years ago (see on page
"best practices".
Finally,
workers' co-operatives are also a good example,
the statute being available in all countries
of the European Union: see
our page on co-operatives.