Legal News
Employee share ownership opposed by two ownership bodies (3 December 2012)
Date: 03/12/2012
Ifs ProShare, the employee share ownership body had held its annual awards ceremony last month and the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) has written to all 21 MPs sitting on the Growth and Infrastructure Bill Committee.
The letter urged that the committee should drop the clause from the bill that would offer a financial incentive in exchange of most of the employment rights of the workers such as employment redundancy rights and unfair dismissal rights to request training and flexible working.
The committee is considering legislation which would include a clause (clause 23) creating new employee owner status which would involve employees receiving shares between 2,000 and £50,000 which will be exempt from capital gains tax. In turn the employee owners would be left with fewer employment rights than others.
Ifs and EOA have said ministers appear to be seeking to justify the waiving of employment rights by suggesting the benefits that flow from traditional forms of employee share ownership will inevitably follow.
They stated that there was no evidence to justify this contention and insisted that there was no need for employment rights to be sacrificed in order to achieve the stated goal.
The two bodies stated that there were chances of significant uncertainty among businesses (especially SMEs) as well as employees. In addition, they said there was likelihood that both the employee ownership and employee share plans sectors would be undermined by the widespread negativity that already surrounds these proposals.
This Wednesday, Vodafone and Asda were among the big winners at the 20th annual ifs ProShare Award ceremony.
Nearly 500 representatives of the employee share ownership industry were at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden to celebrate excellence in the industry.
Vodafone won most effective communication (1,001 to 15,000 employees) and most effective use of technology.
Asda walked away with most effective communication (15,001 + employees) and best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership (15,001+ employees).