The European ESOP – A New Model of Employee Ownership

Owners at Work

SUMMARY: When we look into the field of employee ownership three major models come to mind, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), worker cooperatives, and employee-owned trusts. But practitioners are always looking to improve existing models and in some rare cases develop new ones. In this first episode of season five we speak with David Ellerman and Tej Gonza of the Institute for Economic Democracy about a new model they have developed which combines features of the ESOP and worker cooperative models – what they term the “European ESOP”. Thier hope is this model that can drive the expansion of broad-based employee ownership in Slovenia – the country where they both live – as well as the European Union more generally. We talk about what features of worker cooperatives and ESOPs were retained and why, how the model functions, and the process for getting supportive legislation passed in Slovenia to encourage the adoption of this model.

Further Reading:

• The Institute for Economic Democracy: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/eng/

• The ESOP Coop Model Explained: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/European-ESOP-IED2022.pdf

Guest INFO :

• Tej Gonza: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/eng/tej-gonza/

• David Ellerman: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/eng/david-ellerman/

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