The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world of work upside down. It is having a dramatic effect on the employment, livelihoods, and well-being of workers and their families, as well as on businesses around the world, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. It started in China at the end of 2019, with that country's economy mainly the first to be affected. The global economy was then impacted as the virus spread. It is a bit early to estimate precisely the extent of the economic crisis on a company, but it is already certain that it is more brutal than before. Companies that have opened their capital to their employees are more likely to keep their employees than other companies that offer a significantly higher level of security to their employees (maintenance of working hours and compensation). What practical economic logic will be found in the company once employee ownership is applied? Would it be an effective way to overcome the various situations of discontent and anxiety among employees, where these feelings are already very strong?
TopContext And Problematic
The employee shareholding is considered as a world event which knows a rise in contemporary capitalism insofar as it is like an inescapable element of the regimes of growth of the principal developed countries (Aglietta & Reberioux, 2005). Thus, one Moroccan employee in two, for example, owns shares in his or her own company. In Europe, this proportion is one in five (Perotin & Robinson 2002) and in France, one employee in 10 is concerned by the phenomenon (Fas 2006). The specificity of employee share ownership is that it is supported by successive governments, but also by companies, which seem to welcome its positive effects (Kruse 2002). Thus, a broad consensus (Desbrieres 2002, p255) seems to be emerging to underline the advantages offered by employee share ownership schemes.
Regulators have notably withdrawn from the subject1, even if their interest in the issue sometimes seems to respond to purely conjunctural imperatives2 (Arcelor merger, “economic patriotism”, for example). This enthusiasm is accompanied by a global reflection on how to build companies that are fairer in their distribution of results and on how to promote harmonious corporate development. This concern should not hide the imperative of value creation, common to all companies. Employee share ownership seems to be the ideal answer to the dual requirement of economic performance and harmonious development. This recent (re)discovery of the positive effects of employee ownership should not hide the historical and constant practice of companies in this field.
In France, for example, employee share ownership has been developing and spreading regularly3, and has been growing in recent years. This can be seen as the effect of favourable governmental measures and of the different promotion efforts of the actors concerned (employees, managers, executives, ...) as illustrated, for example, by Wavestone, which has instituted a Free Share Allocation Plan (PAGA). This plan allows employees to become shareholders of their company under advantageous conditions by investing their participation bonus in the Wavestone Action fund. Employees are entitled to free shares two years later, provided they are still with the company and have not sold their shares in the employee shareholding fund.
This being said, employee share ownership is a performance lever: employees are proud to be shareholders of their company and it is also a way to build loyalty. However, it remains a risky investment and the company always puts forward the recommendations of the AMF to diversify its portfolio. In addition, only profit-sharing gives the right to a contribution in free shares. Beyond this contribution, employee share ownership is fiscally interesting since it is less taxed than the holding of normal shares or salary. Today, more than 50% of employees invest in the Wavestone share fund. However, employee share ownership is still a lagging type of savings in Morocco. Only large capitalizations and foreign groups, via their subsidiaries in Morocco, stand out. An essential tool for building loyalty, employee shareholding is still not very popular in Morocco. Through this mechanism, company managers involve their employees in the financial life of the company and its results. This mechanism makes the employee a long-term shareholder of the company, while allowing to align the interests between employees, shareholders and managers.
Employee share ownership can be implemented through several schemes (savings plan, free allocation of company shares, stock options or warrants...). These different schemes have two points in common. On the one hand, the shares are offered to employees on preferential terms: either at a discount to the market price, or at the market price with an additional contribution from the employer (matching contribution). On the other hand, the shares acquired by employees are blocked for a certain period of time to encourage long-term value creation.
In Morocco, this practice remains very little developed. It is limited to large groups that offer this type of savings scheme to their employees, most often reserving capital increases for them. Recently, it is the three largest capitalizations in the market that have “invited” their employees to take part in their capital increases. The banks Banque Centrale Populaire and Attijariwafa bank, via capital increases of 2.4 billion DH and 2.21 billion DH, respectively, and Maroc Telecom, the latest example, via its recent OPV. The operator is offering 0.3% of its capital (i.e. 16.7% of the size of the operation) at a price of MAD 117.7 against MAD 125.3 for the general public.