Gimmick like PRP, if people remember. Funny that the TUC are finessing an ex-Tory idea to include voting rights.

I expect not as most on here nowadays seem to be ex-public sector on gold plated (ill health) pensions.

"Everything is air-droppable at least once."

"When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support."

did you mean to post this on the flexible working hours thread or the dividends?

Edited by pefwin (10 Sep 2018 3.43pm)

"Everything is air-droppable at least once."

"When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support."

Labour has announced that companies should be forced to hand over 10% of their shares to the workers.

I am in favour of workers owning shares and most responsible companies have a scheme, but I don't like compulsion.

The cynic in me has spotted a more sinister purpose in what appears to be a benevolent policy.

In their plans Labour say that whilst the workers will receive the dividends the share will be held in a central pool. I would call that a voting block.

Question: Who controls the voting rights for that block? The unions perhaps?

Edited by Badger11 (24 Sep 2018 9.14am)

One more point

I think instead of shares wages should be linked from the top earners to the bottom.
If the chief executive gets a rise all workers get the same %

If the top bosses get a bonus the other employees get the same % of earnings.

£10 minimum wage? Whats not to like? Stand aside CONservatives, the real workers are on the up!

What? Have you ever worked in an FCA registered business? You're FORCED to do things all the time. For that matter have you ever worked in a company? They are all FORCED to pay tax every year. What a scandal.

If you look at the level of business investment it's in the doldrums. Businesses are sitting on huge piles of cash and more and more they are repatriating huge amounts to shareholders. This is bad for the economy. It's one of the main reasons corporate productivity since 2008 has been so awful.

Talking of productivity, had workers’ wages kept track with the rise in their productivity since 1990, the average employee would today be 20% better off. Or they could have three-day weekends all year long and still get paid the same.

Furthermore, labour had been getting smaller and smaller slices of the pie: from 70% of national income in the 1970s to 55% now. By the reckoning of the Bank of England's chief economist, employees get proportionately less now than they did at the very outset of the Industrial Revolution in the 1770s.

Given that shareholders benefit from limited liability and the infrastructure which the public pay for, plus all the upside of outperformance, there should be more of a compunction for companies to be part owned by their employees or the state. We're talking 10% max, not mass state ownership. This should have been happening years ago, and should have formed the basis of a sovereign wealth fund. What's more we should go further and have state owned VC and PE vehicles which provide funds for start ups in sectors such as tech, medicine, engineering etc. which then would retain 5-10% of the shares on any listing and plough the profits from listing or sale back into public projects such as infrastructure and education.

This policy I predict will be hugely popular. It's a shame (but not surprising) that the right wing rags have barely reported on it for fear that their readers would (rightly) think it rather a decent policy and one worth voting for.