Best Practice Case Study: Voestalpine, Austria
For our 2012 EU Parliament study on Employee participation in the European Union, we published best practice case studies on both companies and countries. Here you find the full version of our best practice case study on Voestalpine, one of the worlds largest steel producers. Voestalpine became partially owned by its employees after the privatization in the year 2000. -we would be happy to hear your thoughts on this case study.
Introduction
Voestalpine AG—headquartered in Linz (Austria)—is mainly active in the production and treatment of steel. As a successful international corporate group with some 300 production and sales companies in more than 60 countries, it has nearly 40,000 employees (fewer than half of them in Austria). In conjunction with discussions about the full privatisation of the corporate group undertaken at the beginning of 2000, the group’s Board of Management together with the employee representatives developed and later implemented an employee participation scheme, which at that time was unprecedented in Austria. Through this, a large portion of the group’s workforce as well as a small group of ex-employees currently hold a 13.3 per cent stake (around 22 million shares) administrated by a private foundation (Voestalpine Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung).
The man who created 10 Million capitalists: Louis O. Kelso
He believed in the Promethean power of man. He wrote “The Capitalist Manifest” even though he did not like the title chosen by the editor. He created facts where others just talked about utopia. At the occasion of his 100st birthday on 4th December 2013 his widow and friends remembered the American lawyer and investment banker, who revolutionised classical economic theory. Kelso’s ideas and their implementation offer solutions for current societal problems – especially today.
The challenge for Financial Participation in businesses
The issue of employees participating in the financial results of their company has become an important political issue across the European Union. It is seen as a mean of promoting greater co-operation between management, owners and employees, eventually leading to a reduction in workplace conflict and, Read More…
Employees becoming co-owners, that´s the aim of EFP – says Prof. Verheugen
´The final aim is that the employees become co-owners,´ said Prof. Verheugen, former vice-president of the European Commision in Mai 2011 at the press conference at the European Univerity Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. He considered the EFP-model presented at the EFP-conference by Prof. Lowitzsch and his colleagues as the best model on the market so far and it should become the basis of the future legislation in Germany.
Watch the highlights of the press conference with:
Prof. Günther Verheugen – former Vice-President of the European Commision, Professor at the European University Viadrina
Prof. Jens Lowitzsch – Professor at the European University Viadrina
Alexander Graf von Schwerin – Rapporteur of the own initiative opinion SOC371/2010 on EFP of the European Economic and Social Committee
Reasons for Introducing EFP – Improving Working and Living Conditions of Employees
‘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 Read More…
Reasons for Introducing EFP – Higher Productivity and Better Competitiveness for Companies
The issue of employees participating in the financial results of their company has become an important political issue across the European Union. It is seen as a mean of promoting greater co-operation between management, owners and employees, eventually leading to a reduction in workplace conflict and, consequently, increasing efficiency, productivity and flexibility. Several reports conducted at the EU level have highlighted the potential benefits of financial participation, which have also been corroborated by a large number of empirical studies.
The resultant growth of productivity and profits creates the potential for a “win- win” situation, Read More…