Prvi slovenski Kongres ekonomske demokracije: Za delež v prihodnosti

6.10. 2022 je Inštitut za ekonomsko demokracijo v Mestnem muzeju v Ljubljani organiziral prvi slovenski Kongres ekonomske demokracije – Za delež v prihodnosti

Na dogodku smo razpravljali o najboljši slovenski in tuji praksi solastništva zaposlenih, povezali smo pomembne deležnike na tem področju in naznanili Vizijo 10-30, ki postavlja cilj, da do konca leta 2030 10% delavcev v zasebnem sektorju postane solastnikov podjetij v katerih so zaposleni.

Glavni govorci

• Robert Golob, Predsednik Vlade Republike Slovenije 
• Luka Mesec, Minister za delo, družino, socialne zadeve in enake možnosti
• David P. Ellerman, Predsednik Inštituta ED
• Stephen Smith, Direktor podjetja Amsted Industries

Gosti na panelu

• Panel Lastništvo zaposlenih v Sloveniji (Jure Knez, Matjaž Čemažar, Peter Kosin, moderiral Tej Gonza) 

• Panel Korak k evropski mreži za ekonomsko demokracijo (Nicolas Aubert (FR), Fred Freundlich (ES), Pascale Nieuwland-Jansen (NL) in Ermanno Celeste Tortia (IT), moderirala Prof. Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrčela)

Povzetek dogodka

Tej Gonza, direktor Inštituta ED je naznanil, da je inštitut uspešno v Slovenijo prenesel ameriški model ESOP in ga vzpostavil v prvih pilotnih projektih. Izvedli so številna izobraževanja s področja finančne pismenosti, participativnega vodenja in kulture lastništva, pripravili predlog politike, na podlagi katerega je napisan osnutek zakona, prav tako pa so prejeli veliko zanimanja s strani mednarodne skupnosti. IED je Slovenijo postavil na svetovni zemljevid ekonomske demokracije. Prvi slovenski Kongres ekonomske demokracije je predstavil dobro prakso, povezal deležnike in napovedal Vizijo 10-30, ki postavlja cilj, da do konca leta 2030 10% vseh delavcev zasebnega sektorja postane solastnikov podjetij, v katerih delajo.

Robert Golob, Predsednik vlade Republike Slovenije je naznanil vladno podporo konceptu solastništva zaposlenih tako v podjetjih kot v zavodih. G. Golob se zaveda, da je kongres šele prvi korak, da v Sloveniji najdemo mesto ekonomski demokraciji – zaradi česar bomo vsi na boljšem. S solastništvom zaposlenih bo Slovenija ustvarjala višala dodano vrednost, pripadnost zaposlenih in večala konkurenčno prednost v svetu.

David Ellerman, bivši svetovalec Joseph Stiglitza na Svetovni banki in predsednik IED, je predstavil najbolj uspešno sodobno prakso solastništva zaposlenih – ESOP v ZDA in EOT v VB. Oba modela gradita solastništvo preko ločene pravne osebe, ki v imenu zaposlenih drži delnice ali deleže podjetja. ESOP podjetja v ZDA danes zaposlujejo 10% delovne sile v zasebnem sektorju, v VB pa je od sprejetja zakona v letu 2014 v lastništvo zaposlenih preko EOT sklada prešlo skoraj 1000 podjetij. Ellerman je povedal, da so na IED razvili model, ki gradi na najboljši praksi solastništva zaposlenih in slednjo še nadgradi. Model je predstavljen v tehničnem članku European ESOP, ki je bil objavljen leta 2020 in posodobljen v letu 2022. Pilotna izvedba ESOP-a v Sloveniji temelji na tem modelu.

Luka Mesec, Minister za delo, družino, socialne zadeve in enake možnosti je govoril o vlogi, ki jo ekonomska demokracija lahko odigra v zagotavljanju družbeno-odgovornega modela za slovenska gospodarstvo. Omenil je, da ima ekonomska demokracija tudi pozitivne družbene eksternalije – predvsem pri opolnomočenju in grajenju avtonomije posameznikov, kar ima lahko tudi pozitivne posledice na obuditev politične participacije. Zagotovil je, da je zasledovanje politik ekonomske demokracije ena izmed prioritet njegovega mandata.

Stephen Smith, direktor Amsted Industries, je predstavil podjetje s 17,000 zaposlenimi, ki je v 100% lasti zaposlenih preko ESOP sklada. Amsted Industries je vodilni proizvajalec industrijskih komponent za železnice, transportna vozila in gradbeništvo. Smith je večkrat poudaril, da je lastništvo zaposlenih konkurenčna prednost in poslovni model ter eden izmed pomembnih razlogov za uspeh podjetja. ZDA zelo aktivno podpirajo lastništvo zaposlenih z različnimi ukrepi, zaradi česar obstajajo podjetja kot je Amsted. Izkušnje kažejo, da so podjetja v lasti zaposlenih v povprečju bolj produktivna, bolj odporna v času kriz ter zagotavljajo boljše delovne pogoje za zaposlene. Ameriški ESOP je dokaz, da je lastništvo zaposlenih politika dodane vrednosti in družbene odgovornosti, zaradi česar si v Sloveniji zasluži državno podporo.

Na prvem panelu so se pogovarjali trije direktorji slovenskih podjetij, ki jih povezuje družbeno odgovorna vizija solastništva zaposlenih. Peter Kosin (Inea d.o.o.) je odprl pogovor z izzivi, s katerimi se spopadajo pri prehodu v 100% sloESOP model, s katerim rešujejo problem lastniškega nasledstva. Opozoril je, da bi lahko država zagotovila več podpore pri zagotavljanju finančnih mehanizmov, s katerimi bi podjetja lahko izvedla odkup delnic oziroma deležev od odhajajočih lastnikov. Ob koncu je povel, da mora biti solastništvo pospremljeno s primernim znanjem in kulturo lastništva – šele takrat pride do izraza potencial, ki ga imajo podjetja v lasti zaposlenih.

Jure Knez je sloESOP primerjal z neposrednim vključevanjem zaposlenih kot družbenikov podjetja. Povedal je, da sta modela kompatibilna in da se ne izključujeta. Neposredno družbeništvo zagotovi več fleksibilnosti, zaradi česar zagotavlja možnost, da podjetje oziroma lastnik podjetja dodatno nagradi izjemne posameznike v podjetju. sloESOP pa je bolj stabilen model, ki zasidra lastništvo med zaposlene na dolgi rok – zagotavlja inkluzivnost, predvidljivost in stabilnost solastništva zaposlenih ter gradi kulturo lastništva med vsemi zaposlenimi v podjetju. Pohvalil je Mondragon kot primer vrhunske prakse in opiše vizijo za podjetniški pospeševalnik Katapult, v katerem želi zgraditi mrežo podpornih podjetij v lasti zaposlenih.

Matjaž Čemažar je poudaril lokalno odgovornost podjetij, ki so v lasti zaposlenih. Trdi, da ni naključje, da so Železniki občina z najboljšim standardom življenja v Sloveniji – glavna delodajalca tam sta Domel in Alples, ki sta oba v delni lasti zaposlenih. Predstavil je izziv nasledstva, s katerim se spopadajo v Domelu – kako zadržati notranje lastništvo? Omenil je, da je dodatna obdavčitev odkupa lastnih delnic izziv, s katerim se soočajo zaradi napovedanih sprememb v dohodninski zakonodaji. Priznal je, da je v Domelu potrebna tudi bolj dolgoročna rešitev od njihovega trenutnega modela, ki jo lahko zagotovi sloESOP model.

Na mednarodnem panelu so se s Prof. Aleksandro Kanjuo Mrčelo (Univerza v Ljubljani) pogovarjali Prof. Ermanno Celeste Tortia (Univerza v Trentu), Prof. Fred Freundlich (Univerza Mondragon), Prof. Nicolas Aubert (Univerza Aix-Marseille) in Pascale Nieuwland-Jansen (direktorica Inštituta za finančno participacijo, NL). Na panelu so se govorci dotaknili vprašanja potenciala evropskega povezovanja pri raziskovanju, politični podpori in mreži evropskih podjetij v lasti zaposlenih. Vsaka država ima svoje izkušnje pri spodbujanju solastništva zaposlenih. Identificirali so odsotnost enotnega evropskega modela, ki bi zagotovil več enotnosti pri spodbujanju lastništva zaposlenih s strani institucij EU. Slovenija bi s sloESOP modelom lahko zagotovila pomemben precedens za skupno politiko zasledovanja solastništva zaposlenih v sektorju MSP.

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Bios and quotes from the speakers

David Ellerman, PhD, President of IED

David Ellerman has written about the theory and practice of worker co-operatives and democratic employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) for about half a century. After a decade in the World Bank, he is now retired and living in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he is a co-founder of the Institute for Economic Democracy. His writings can be found on his website: www.ellerman.org.

Tej Gonza, Managing Director of IED

Tej Gonza is a Co-Founder and a Director of IED, where he works on policy, legislation proposals, and practical implementation of employee ownership models. He graduated from Economics at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana and continued his studies at Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics at Rotterdam University, where he developed his interest in economic democracy. Currently, he is a PhD candidate working on employee ownership. Gonza co-designed the European ESOP, Platform ESOP, and European Marcora as three different generic models for spreading worker ownership

  Stephen Smith, CEO of Amsted Industries

Stephen Smith is the CEO of Amsted Industries, a global manufacturer in the transportation equipment and construction industry that has been employee-owned since 1986.  He previously served as Chair of Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), an organization which advocates for employee ownership in the United States.   

“I am pleased to see employee ownership spread to other parts of the world like Slovenia, as I envision a day when a global company can be owned by workers throughout the world.”

Jure Knez, co-founder of Dewesoft

Jure Knez, PhD was born on July 15th 1974 in Trbovlje, where he also attended primary and secondary school. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Ljubljana, where he earned his PhD. 

In 2000, he co-founded Dewesoft, a multinational company producing highly innovative data acquisition software. With an annual growth rate of more than 20%, Dewesoft is one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry, as well as one of the Slovenian-owned companies with the highest value-added.  

The company also stands out for its ownership structure. Since the very beginning, Jure Knez has been supportive of employee ownership, as he believes the best guarantee for the long-term success of his company are its own employees. Dewesoft is currently owned by more than 80 of its employees.  

“In Slovenia, we urgently need to recognize the value of our domestic capital. It’s more patient, socially responsible, and gives back to the community. We have to move on from the idea that foreign capital is more valuable.” 

Matjaž Čemažar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Domel Holding d.d.

Since 2018, Matjaž Čemažar is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Domel Holding d.d. Previously, he has worked as Head of the R&D department responsible for the development of Domel’s product range. As a member of the governing body of the University of Ljubljana, he represents the interests of industry in decisions about strategic development. Since becoming Chairman, Čemažar has been active in the field of employee ownership and associated legislation. 

“Employee-owners feel closer to the company, they make decisions that are economical and rational. Ownership culture develops because employee-owners consider their share as a long-term investment for which they are responsible but which also grants them certain rights.”

Peter Kosin, CEO, Inea d.o.o.

Peter Kosin, sportsman and numismatist at heart, is a trained electrical engineer. He has worked at Inea since 1994. In 2004, he became a co-owner of the company, and since 2010 he is its CEO. Kosin, who enjoys strong support among staff and has gained plenty of educational and professional experience abroad, has had a pivotal role in the processes of bringing Inea to international markets and putting the company on a path to internal ownership. He is guided by realistic optimism, common sense and a strong sense of care for others. 

“Already by next year, Inea will most likely have more than 100 employees. If we want to continue to feel at home in our company and if we want it to benefit its employees and remain immune to external influence, then collective ownership is the only right answer. 

The Congress of Economic Democracy provides us with a platform to help companies dealing with the problem of succession to transition to employee ownership. I hope that together with other advocates we can convince the sceptics that cooperative ownership is not a step backwards, but a step forward.”

Aleksandra Kanjuo-Mrčela, Professor of Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana

Between 1999 and 2001, she was a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. She has been a member of the European Commission’s expert networks in the field of gender equality and employment since 2004. She was vice-dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences between 2007 and 2011. Economic democracy is an important topic of her research and pedagogical work. From 2015 to 2021 she was the head of the Doctoral Study at the University of Ljubljana. From 2021 she is the head of Centre for organisations and human resources research at the FSS UL. She is a co-founder of the IED and a member of the IED expert committee.

Pascale Nieuwland-Jansen, Director of SNPI

Pascale Nieuwland-Jansen, MA studied International Business and Indonesian Languages at the University of Leiden and Erasmus University Rotterdam (1997). In 2005 and 2008 she studied Human Resource Management (ISBW) and did a master HRM.  Since 2013, Pascale Nieuwland is Director of SNPI. Before becoming a director, she had worked as a Consultant at SNPI for 8 years.   SNPI, the Netherlands Participation Institute, is a non-profit foundation for the promotion of employee share ownership in the Netherlands. 

“It is important that more European countries start promoting financial participation for employees. It is evidence-based that all forms of broad-based financial participation of employees are adding value to the company, the employees, and the national economy.  

The European Union is united in many ways, but not when it comes to financial participation. There are countries with many fiscal incentives for financial participation and there are European countries without any fiscal incentives.  

It is time that we are seeking for a more central approach to financial participation in Europe.”

Fred Freundlich, Professor of Cooperative Enterprise

I am an American, transplanted to the Basque Country of Spain in 1995. As a professor at Mondragon University there and a member of its Lanki Institute for Cooperative Research, I teach courses on cooperatives and ownership of enterprise and do research and company training on intercooperation among cooperative firms and the effects of shared ownership at work. 

“This Congress is a central piece of a strategy that will move Slovenia toward economic democracy, that is, more sustainable and fair enterprise development and general prosperity. Broadly shared business ownership is crucial to this strategy and the Mondragon cooperative group (to which my university is affiliated) is perhaps the most successful example of shared worker ownership in the world, an integrated network of over 90 advanced manufacturing and service firms and tens of thousands of working people. I hope to contribute to the Congress by explaining intercooperation in Mondragon – cooperation among cooperative companies – a series of interwoven policies and practices that make up a cornerstone of Mondragon’s success and durability over the last 60 years. These might well be adapted to the Slovenian context and help fortify the county’s efforts to build its own version of economic democracy.”

Nicolas Aubert, Professor at Aix-Marseille University

Nicolas Aubert is a Professor at Aix-Marseille University and a fellow at the Institute for the study of employee ownership and profit sharing at Rutgers University. His research focuses on the effects of employee ownership on corporate performance and governance and on the financial risk of employee ownership. He is a member of the scientific council of the French federation of employee ownership. 

For more information:  https://sites.google.com/site/niaubert/

“I can contribute to the conference by talking about employee ownership practices in French companies and possible development paths in smaller companies where it is less developed. Moreover, another way of developing employee ownership in Europe is to be part of sustainable finance practices.”

Ermanno Celeste Tortia, Associate professor at the University of Trento

Tortia is an associate professor at the University of Trento, Department of Economics and Management. His research activity focuses on institutionalist theory of the firm, organizational studies, personnel economics and HRM, applied to research on third sector organizations: social enterprises, non-profit organizations and cooperative enterprises, with particular reference to worker cooperatives. He has also participated in research on the economic development of local systems.

“As John Stuart Mill and Professor David Ellerman have stated, economic democracy and worker cooperatives represent the most advanced form of organization in the production and exchange of goods and services because they are capable of realizing the full liberation and self-realization of workers in the productive sphere. Because Prof. Ellerman has devoted several decades of his work to developing a model of worker cooperatives that can effectively replace capitalist enterprises, combining effectiveness and efficiency with workers’ rights and participatory governance, this event aims to discuss his model and other models of worker cooperatives that exist and thrive in competitive settings, such as the Italian and Spanish ones (particularly Mondragon). Comparing different models can provide further crucial insights into how worker cooperatives can evolve and achieve mainstream status in contemporary economies. My role will be to bring the Italian experience of worker cooperation into the discussion and to compare it with that of Spain and Slovenia. I will also provide some insights related to my research on worker cooperatives, particularly on the role of layoff and collective capital (indivisible reserves) in this form of ownership.”