JSW Group rolls out Esop for all employees from shop floor to top brass
Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group will offer around 16 million shares worth about Rs 1,000 crore in a comprehensive employee stock option plan (Esop) to reward all the employees of its steel and energy businesses – a first for a metals and mining group.The Esop opportunity, payable at a face value of Re 1 per share, is being rolled out to employees of JSW Steel and JSW Energy and covers all levels from top brass to shop floor workers, including workers, junior, middle, senior management and business leadership, a top executive said. The group will acquire shares for the Esop corpus from stock bourses. The offer has a vesting period of four years.“We started operationalising our mines, and we also have an expansion and growth plan. So, this was the time, I think, to also recognise and reward our people for the effort, the dedication and the commitment they had put in,” said Dilip Pattanayak, president, human resources, at JSW Group.JSW Steel is granting 13 million shares, and JSW Energy is granting 3.66 million shares under this wealth creation initiative. The Esop incentive is over and above employees’ current gross compensation. “The Esop plan does not impact the employee compensation in any way. In fact, it is in addition to the gross CTC (cost to company),” Pattanayak said.The companies’ lowest grade of employee ranking is called L1, which includes workers from the shop floor, and the highest grade is called L19 for members of their executive committee. JSW Steel will offer 5 million shares to its senior management grade and above, representing 0.21% of the issued equity capital of the company. Another eight million shares will be earmarked for its workmen, junior and middle management grade, representing 0.33% of the issued equity capital of the company.Similarly, for JSW Energy, the top management is allotted 1.41 million shares, representing 0.09% of the issued equity capital of the company, and the lower grades are allotted 2.25 million shares, or 0.14% of the issued equity capital.At the current market price, an LI grade employee will get around Rs 3 lakh worth of options, Pattanayak said.The companies will fund the share acquisition from the secondary market through their employee welfare trust, as permitted by market regulator Sebi.Average attrition rate – or reduction in workforce due to employee exits – of JSW Steel and JSW Energy hovers at 6.5-7%. Both the firms have around 42,000-44,000 employees each, and they have been hiring around 800-900 people every year. The hiring numbers came down in 2020 due to the impacts of the pandemic. The Esop scheme does not cover the around 25,000 temporary contract workers of JSW Steel and JSW Energy.
Read More
