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Fin24 reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated on Tuesday that SA's employee share ownership schemes (Esops) had come a long way since their early days of empowerment 20 years ago, with more than a half a million workers now participants.
Referring to a study by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), which noted that 551,000 workers in SA were now covered by Esops, Ramaphosa noted that efforts to introduce more of these schemes had picked up considerably over the years, but that more needed to be done. Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural Worker Share Ownership Conference hosted by the DTIC in Sandton, Ramaphosa pointed out that if workers were incentivised, as was the case with CEOs and other top managers, they would go above and beyond in their bid to see the companies they worked for grow. Ramaphosa added that worker share ownership schemes were an "investment towards the achievement of greater social justice", adding there was a need to "underpin what we do with the concept of leaving no one behind". DTIC Minister Ebrahim Patel told delegates the conference was a first of its kind and provided an opportunity to reflect on a new model of Esops differed from earlier ones. This new model would focus on "bringing tangible and immediate benefits for share ownership to workers, colleagues and friends in a rapidly changing world with the opportunities and complex challenges of artificial intelligence and firms and economies with need to address climate change with greater urgency". It was noted that over the past five years, a total of 125 worker share trusts had been launched in SA, with 98 of them already established and 27 in progress.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nick Wilson at Fin24
- Read too, Employee share ownership plans mark successes, learnings, at Engineering News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page