What if we took the idea of employee ownership and turned it into a bureaucratic time bomb with a hint of nostalgia for Yugoslav communist self-management? Welcome to Slovenia’s take on the ESOP.
Let’s imagine a real company — say, Pro Plus, the broadcaster behind Pop TV and Kanal A. Let’s assume it employs 270 people and is worth about €170 million. Now let’s walk through what would happen if it were to become a worker-owned cooperative, under the new legislation being pushed in Slovenia.
1. It's not optional — it's collective or nothing.
The law requires 75% of all employees to agree to form a cooperative. That’s 203 people out of 270. You can’t just invite your five best engineers or top-performing managers. It’s all in, or no deal.
2. Each worker pays… €300.
That’s the maximum legally allowed contribution per employee. So, these 203 folks scrape together a total of €60,900 to buy a company worth €170 million. Not a joke — that’s the model.
3. Ownership, in theory.
For their €300 each, every participating worker becomes a co-owner — equal share, equal say. That’s €837,438 of value per head, on paper. But without paying anything close to that amount.
4. One worker, one vote — no exceptions.
There’s no differentiation between seniority, performance, or contribution. The cleaner and the CEO get the same voting power. It’s pure equality, circa 1976.
5. You can’t sell your share.
Want out? Too bad. You can’t sell it on the open market. You can only leave the company, and then the cooperative buys it back — at a price it sets itself, not at market value. Hope you like internal valuation committees.
6. The catch: you're not actually an owner yet.
Here’s the twist: the cooperative doesn’t actually own the company — not until it pays the full €170 million. Where does that money come from? The company’s own cash flow. Which could take years or decades. Until then, the original owner retains control, and you’re just a co-op on paper.
7. Enter the state: taxpayer-funded idealism.
Obviously, no one in their right mind would sell a €170M asset and wait 15 years to get paid — unless someone guarantees the payment. Cue the Slovenian government, floating ideas of state guarantees for loans to fund the buyout.
8. You pay if it fails.
If the company can’t generate enough cash flow, the loan doesn’t get repaid. And because the state guaranteed it, you — the taxpayer — are on the hook. We’re socializing risk in the name of collectivized ownership.
9. A new experiment with an old smell.
It’s not entrepreneurship. It’s not market-based ownership. It’s centrally organized redistribution, repackaged in cooperative jargon. It’s Yugoslav self-management with a Google Doc.
10. Conclusion: back to the commune, one subsidy at a time.
Slovenia isn’t innovating. It’s regressing — reinventing the cooperative model as a tool of political ideology, not economic logic. If you think this will lead to motivated workers, thriving companies, or efficient governance — you might just be eligible for a state-funded training in how not to run a business.
ESOP? No — this is E-SOAP: a slippery slope of ideology, washed down with public money.