從公司治理談員工股權獎勵措施:以限制員工權利新股及員工持股信託為中心

Abstract

公司經營除資金與股權之外，經營者、管理者、執行者分工合作，創造效益與價值，為公司創造盈餘與持續成長之基本泉源。為鼓勵公司組織內的每一分子盡忠職守，竭盡所能發揮產值，成為”生命共同體”;背後之法規架構扮演舉足輕重的角色。\n股權，成為近來員工獎酬的主流;股權獎勵分為公司法定與非公司法定之種類。公司法定之股權獎勵中，員工限制型股票為於2011年立法引進之股權獎勵措施，於國內外的應用主要為中高階主管;非公司法定的獎勵措施，近年來較廣泛運用者，則為員工持股信託，其特色是由員工自願性的組成員工持股委員會後提撥薪資，並在信託法及其相關法規的架構之下，由雇主公司相對提撥相同、或約定的金額，共同投資雇主公司的股票，並成為日後員工離職或退休之退休金。此兩種股權獎勵措施之相關法規架構之形成及修法，亦是此兩種股權激勵得以具體實施之圭臬，並促使實務運用日趨廣泛。\n我國員工限制型股票之法源為公司法及募發準則，公司法在2018年修法之後，亦對員工限制型股票有了更明確的開放。我國員工持股信託源自1992年財政部函釋信託公司得以承作，從信託法及相關法規推動下，多年以來員工持股之信託財產專戶終於也名列部分上市公司的十大股東之列，有參與公司經營決策之實力。員工持股信託並成為2020年”信託2.0”政策中的重點發展項目之一。金管會並於2020年11月宣達規劃上市櫃公司辦理員工福利信託將列為公司治理評鑑之加分項目，預計於2021年實施;顯見員工獎酬納入公司治理之發展趨勢。\n本文除了統整兩大股權獎勵措施於美國法及我國法令之演變、分析美國與國內統計與實務運用、國內外相關判決、並研究相關法令及制度設計之發展邏輯與影響。本文並研究兩大國外金融機構(花旗銀行、美國銀行)之高階主管獎酬制度、員工持股信託於美國重大的爭議與判決、以及員工退休收入安全法案專法所帶來之啟示。本文並針對限制型股票和員工持股信託，提供未來持續修法之方向建議;並於公司獎勵人才同時，亦持續強化公司治理之實踐。

In addition to capital and stock ownership, the cooperation among top, middle management, and execution levels to deliver the performance and value, is the source to create earnings and growth for the companies. To make sure all the stakeholders including the management and staff levels to perform their duties towards the same direction, the law and regulation related to employee incentive programs and the governance structure play the important roles.\nShare-based payment becomes the mainstream for the employee incentive programs which are governed by corporate law and non corporate law. Restricted stock is the latest tool governed by corporate law and introduced in 2011 in Taiwan. It is mostly applied to senior management team as key employee incentive program. As far as non corporate law’s territory, ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) is more widely utilized whereby employee voluntarily form the employee stock ownership committee to collect part of their salaries together with the compensation contributed by the companies to invest in the stock of employers. The trusted fund is designed to be the retirement program for employee when they resign or retire from the company.\nIn Taiwan, the law and regulations which govern the restricted stock are Company Act and Regulations Governing the Offering and Issuance of Securities by Securities Issuers.Company Act was modified in 2018 and bring more application to restricted stock program. ESOP was approved by Minister of Finance back in 1992. After a long period of development, the employee trusted fund finally becomes one of the top ten stockholders for some listed companies. Accordingly, the ESOP program became one of the focuses in the “Trust 2.0” policies in 2020 to further develop the employee stock ownership. FSC also announced that ESOP implementation results would be the plus of appraisal on corporate governance for the listed companies. The appraisal would be expected to be implemented in 2021.\nThis article summarized the US and Taiwan regulation related to the two programs. It also introduced the practice of two worldwide financial institutions (Citibank and Bank of America), provided the cases, statistics and judges related to the above two employee incentive programs (restricted stock and ESOP). Most importantly, to study how the corporate governance impacted and directed the evolvement of the above employee incentive programs. This article also provides the recommendations of further regulation modification from corporate governance perspectives to enhance the two employee incentive programs.