Intercentar » Gyula Kocsis

3 Employee Ownership Events on December 4th

admin — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 09:02:27 +0000

Following up on our Kelso event announcement of November 18th, we are happy to announce two further events both taking place in Frankfurt (Oder) on December 4th.

Please confirm your attendance at kelso-professorship@europa-uni.de

11.00 am – 1.15 pm Employee Financial Participation in SMEs: A strategy for labour market policy and regional business development.

The project began in October 2012 and emphasised the support and transnational exchange of knowledge and experience in shaping the future of labour policy of- Brandenburg. In the framework of the project, players from Germany, Poland and Spain came to reciprocally learn about the different forms of employee financial participation. This knowledge and experience exchange reflected trough European perspectives enriched the project of Employee Financial Participation in SMEs. The Kelso Professorship and its transnational project partners will present and conclude the results of this process on this final event. Possibilities of disseminat- ing employee financial participation schemes in Brandenburg will be also dis- cussed.

Speakers: John Menke (CEO Menke Group), Mateusz Musial (University Opole), Jone Nolte (ASLE), Jens Lowitzsch (Europa Universität Viadrina).

The project is implemented by the Kelso Professorship at Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) in co-operation with six partner organisations from Germany, Poland and Spain and is supported by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Women and Family Affairs of the Land of Brandenburg with funds from the European Social Fund and the Land of Brandenburg.

1.45 pm – 3.45 pm Development of a German and a Polish Employee Financial Participation Scheme on the Grounds of the ESOP Concept.

The project started in October 2011 and it has two aims: First to phrase recom- mendations to reforming the German Employee Financial Participation Act from 2009 and of the Polish support programme of “Spółki Pracownicze“, and thus to offer solutions to overcome deficits that emerge in practice. Second – based on the reform suggestions – it targets to develop national schemes on the grounds of the ESOP concept, successfully in practice in the US for more than 50 years. In our analysis, we especially considered the financial and taxation impact of employee financial participation schemes on employees and employers. During the final event we will present and discuss the results and conclusions of the project.

Speakers: Patricia Kelso (President Kelso Institute), Arkadiusz Wudarski (Collegium Polonicum & Europa Universität Viadrina), Jens Lowitzsch (Europa Universität Viadrina).

The project is implemented by the Kelso Professorship at Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) in co-operation with the Allerhand Institute Cracow and the Inter-University Centre at the Institute for East European Studies of Freie Universität Berlin and is financially supported by the German-Polish Science Foundation.

4.00pm – 7.30pm 100th anniversary of Louis O. Kelso

See our previous blog post for more detail on the 100th anniversary of Louis O. Kelso.

Invitation:

Employee Financial Participation in SMEs: A strategy for labour market policy and regional business development.

Development if a German and a Polish Employee Financial Participation Scheme on the Grounds of the ESOP Concept.

100th anniversary of Louis O. Kelso

100th Anniversary of Kelso

intercentar — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 12:45:56 +0000

On the fourth of December we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Louis O. Kelso with an international event at the European University Viadrina.

Invitation and Programm

About Kelso: Louis O. Kelso (1913-1991) was a political economist in the classical tradition of Smith, Marx and Keynes. He was also a corporate and financial lawyer, author, lecturer and merchant banker who is chiefly remembered today as the inventor and pioneer of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), the prototype of the leveraged buy-out which Kelso invented to enable working people without savings to buy stock in their employer company and pay for it out of its future dividend yield. Source: Kelso Institute

Kelso regarded the ESOP and CSOP as pragmatic proof that his revolutionary revision of classical economic theory, and the financial techniques he derived from this new perspective, were sound and workable in the economic and business world. As a corporate and financial lawyer, and later as senior partner in the law firm he founded, Kelso well understood this world. He was further motivated by his conviction that lawyers had a special responsibility to maintain and improve society’s institutions in the light of its democratic values. He further believed that the business corporation was society’s greatest social invention and that its executives had a fiduciary responsibility to exercise its vast power.

The event will be under the auspices of the Polish Vice-Minister of Economics, Mrs Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik.

Special guests are: Patricia Kelso (Kelso Institute), John D. Menke (Menke Group), Paul Maillard (FONDACT), David Morris (Global Wealth Allocation), Daniel Dahm (United Sustainability), Herwig Roggemann (Institute for East European Studies).

The Event is jointly organized by: The Centre for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies (Prof. Dr. Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast) and the Kelso Professorship of Comparative Law, East-European Business Law and European Legal Policy (Prof. Dr. Jens Lowitzsch)

Time & Location: Wednesday December 4th 2013 4PM: Logensaal – Logenstr. 12,15230 Frankfurt (Oder) Germany.

Reasons for Introducing EFP – Improving Working and Living Conditions of Employees

intercentar — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:56:08 +0000

‘To stick to wages alone is to maintain a permanent class struggle,’ said Charles de Gaulle. Building ownership of productive assets into a nation’s own working families makes good freemarketsense. The financial crisis engulfing our world is, at bottom, a consumption crisis. It is brought on by too little money in the pockets of those who are eager to buy the goods and services merchants are eager to sell and producers to supply. Once investment capital had to be painfully hoarded from savings squeezed from current consumption. EFP schemes are often seen as one solution to the above mentioned problems of industrial societies and also to dissatisfaction of employees, poor quality of working life and declining productivity. In enlarging economic opportunity for the many through share ownership, ESOPs, together with profit sharing and other forms of employee financial participation (EFP), work to create a more just society.
At this point the question may arise, how can EFP-schemes contribute to a more just society after all? Numerous studies and the initiative report of SOC 371/2010 of the European Economic and Social Committee have shown that employees benefit from EFP-schemes because they influence the living and working conditions of employees. Some of the benefits would be:

access to asset formation through profit-sharing, share-ownership or employee-stock-ownership schemes

flexibility and therefore higher job security in times of recession or instability

increased local purchasing power

understanding what drives success in the company through participation in government and decision-making

In addition to this, one of the most important benefits for workers is in that EFP schemes can serve as a saving plan for future. It is well known that the European population is ageing and that governments are finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain the current levels of pension. EFP schemes can be a source of extra income which could be put aside in a saving scheme (or is put aside in a saving scheme by the firm).

Nevertheless, employees must also be aware of the possible risks associated with EFP schemes, especially ones involving share ownership. Since a part of their remuneration package is paid in company shares, the scheme will heavily depend on the movement of share prices, offering very little diversification. If employees count on the return from these shares as their extra income in retirement, they should be aware of the possible risk associated with such a scheme.
However, this risk can be alleviated by improvements in the quality of employee relations, introducing other investments as a portion of the contributions, or moving to investments plans offering some diversification. In addition, a huge amount of effort is put to facilitate the transfer of EFP schemes across borders with the aim of encouraging employees to accept the benefits arising from participation in such plans.

The above listed arguments for EFP-schemes increase in the end the motivation of the worker and are likely to lead to greater employee commitment, lower absenteeism and labour turnover, greater investments in company-specific human capital and reduced conflicts within the company. These are factors, which tend to improve the overall performance of the company and of the employee. The final result of these features will be an increase in productivity which has been recognised as the fundamental pre-requisite for economic growth and employment growth. The implementation of EFP-schemes tend therefore to create a „win-win“-situation for both, employers and for employees and – as a very important positive „side-effect“ – it strengthens the regional and European economy.