The Treasurer and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations today released the Government's response to the report of the Inquiry into employee share ownership in Australia (the Nelson Report).
The report, Shared Endeavours, was released by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations on 9 October 2000.
The report has made a significant contribution to debate in this important area of Government policy. The Treasurer and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations thank the Committee for its valuable work.
The Government's response reaffirms the Government's policy approach to employee share ownership, which balances promoting benefits that may accrue as a result of aligning the interests of employees and employers and limiting opportunities for overuse.
To further encourage the growth of employee share ownership in Australia, the Government has established an Employee Share Ownership Development Unit within the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, and will allow rollover for certain holdings in employee share schemes in the event of a corporate restructure such as a merger, demerger or takeover.
The new rollover measure will allow employees to roll over an employee share scheme income taxing point in the event of a corporate restructure, subject to certain conditions, including continuity of employment in the restructured entity. Rollover will apply from 1 July 2004.
These measures foster the workplace relations and productivity benefits of employee share ownership by maximising employee share take-up and cultural change, and emphasising share take-up at the shop-floor level.
The Development Unit will work with employers and employees and provide assistance with design, implementation and the provision of information. It will also collect information about the barriers to further participation in share ownership schemes and the scope for share ownership to encourage start-up activity.
The Government's response to Shared Endeavours is attached to the electronic copy of this press release at: http://www.treasurer.gov.au/tsr/content/publications.