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voestalpine Employee Participation

Since the year 2000, employees have been participating in the capital of voestalpine AG through the ownership of own shares:

  • 25,500 employees hold 26 million shares (together with former employees)
  • with 14.8% of the voting rights, they are the second largest shareholder of voestalpine AG
  • only model in Europe that combines international pooling of voting rights with individual share ownership

Since the year 2000, the management and the works council of the voestalpine Group have been engaged in the joint development of an innovative concept that was very ambitious for many at the time. The idea was to let the employees participate in the company through shares owned by them, to turn them into a stable core shareholder by pooling their voting rights, and to allow them to benefit from the success of voestalpine as individual shareholders.

At present, the voestalpine Employee Participation extends to the approximately 23,100 employees from all 52 companies of the voestalpine Group in Austria and to approximately 2,400 employees from 97 companies in 11 other countries. On their behalf approximately 24 million individual share certificates in total – corresponding to 13.4 % of the voting rights – are pooled and managed by a private foundation. They hold about 24 million shares which, due to the general  bundling of voting rights, represent 13.4 % of the company’s share capital. Representing 14.8 % of the voting rights of voestalpine AG in total, the voestalpine Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung is therefore the largest Employee Participation in Austria, both in terms of voting rights percentage and share value.

For further information about the basic principles of Employee Participation in Austria and internationally, please visit the following webpage: Basic principles of Employee Participation in Austria and internationally

Employee Participation counts on the support of management and works council

Employee Participation

The management and the works council developed the model jointly, and both are still fully in support of the Employee Participation plan. It is regarded as an example of “social partnership” in action – the internal cooperation between employer and employee for which voestalpine is well known.

“At voestalpine, it is the people who make all the difference. They are at the heart of our success. Hence our conviction that our employees should share in this success”, says Dr Wolfgang Eder, member of the Supervisory Board of voestalpine AG, about the motivation behind the model.

„Having been able to successfully develop such a unique plan in spite of the sometimes diverging interests truly is special.“

Hans-Karl Schaller, Chairman of the Corporate Works Council