Mitarbeiteraktienoptionsprogramme

Since the stock market boom of the New Economy at the end of the 1990s, stock option programmes have also become established in Germany as an effective form of employee participation. However, stock option holders often only include the members of a company’s management board and executives. Greater involvement by employees at lower hierarchical levels could be achieved in particular through collective bargaining agreements and works agreements. However, collective labour law and the laws on companies and corporate groups are insufficiently coordinated. This study reveals how the autonomy of general meetings and collective bargaining autonomy as well as group management power and operational co-determination can be reconciled. Its second part examines the impact of corporate restructuring on stock option programmes. The author explains that option rights in squeeze-outs and transfers of undertakings must be protected to a greater extent than previously assumed.