E-HANDLE Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 WestJet does have an employee rep on the board of directors. Have had for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GDR Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Bad day when you don't learn something. Is he/she a voting member or an observer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 I'd like to re-emphasize that 'employee ownership' does not mean an airline run by the employees. Widely held public companies have many, many sharehnlders and typically only a few shareholders will have sufficient concentration of ownership to have a member on the board. Furthermore, having a member on the board, or even more than one member, DOES NOT mean that you run the company. The day to day operation of the company is left to people who have expertise in that area. Board members have oversight, not day to day input. Employees should be entitled to a membership on the Board of Directors entirely in proportion to their share ownership, just as for any shareholder. A typical shareholder decision regarding board membership is to nominate a director who has a deep business background. In other words, if you're a mutual fund holding a lot of shares in a business, you don't necessarily send one of your employees to the BOD. Frequently an independent and well-regarded individual is chosen to represent your interests on the Board. Likewise with employee ownership. If Air Canada's employees held a lot of AC shares and that ownership extended across multiple union groups, the sensible thing is to mutually nominate an independent business expert to the Board of Directors in order to represent the employees' interests. By the way, I'd make exactly the same recommendation if the shares were held by only one union: send a BUSINESS expert to represent your interests, don't send a union official. Employees HAVE to make the crucial distinction between their roles as employees and their roles as owners. The Board member nominated by the employees is there to represent their interests as SHAREHOLDERS, not as employees. His role is, in large part, to protect and enhance SHARE VALUE; not to enhance working conditions. And finally, as Greg notes below, when permitted, employees can nominate an observer to the Board of Directors. So even if the employees don't have sufficient share ownership to warrant a seat on the board, they can still see what's going on. This gives them non-voting oversight of the Board and its business decisions. Best wishes, RR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-HANDLE Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Greg, I had to go through the annual report to find an answer to your question. It makes no mention of the PACT (employee) member being anything less than a full board member. One would assume that if this person was an observer, it would be clearly stated. I must add that having an employee on the board, who was elected by other employees, adds a sense of transparancy I think is neccesary for a business model like WestJet's. regards, E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEFCON Posted July 25, 2003 Share Posted July 25, 2003 "This gives them non-voting oversight of the Board and its business decisions." Don't the quarterly & annual reports do that now? I don't have a problem with employee share ownership but, I don't believe employees should be represented at the BOD as employees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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