Employee shareholdership in joint stock companies

In recent years, employee share ownership schemes have begun to attract attention in Türkiye; however, such schemes have long been debated within European Union and Anglo-Saxon legal doctrine, where supportive regulatory frameworks have been established to facilitate employees' acquisition of shares in the companies they serve. In the United States, employee share ownership mechanisms have existed in various forms since the 1950s, supported by incentive structures that have provided significant tax advantages for both employers and employees. By contrast, in Türkiye, the concept was explicitly introduced only in 2021 through the Presidential Development Programs, with additional tax incentives being implemented in late 2024. Given these legislative developments and the inherently multidisciplinary character of the subject, employee share ownership constitutes a legal and practical phenomenon that merits thorough academic scrutiny. Against this backdrop, the present study will first provide a historical and comparative analysis of employee share ownership methods in international legislation, with particular attention to the diversity of regulatory models. It will then examine whether, under Turkish law—principally the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, the Capital Markets Law No. 6362, and related secondary legislation—employees may legitimately acquire shares in joint stock companies. Finally, the study will explore the legal characterization of employee share ownership agreements, which have yet to gain a solid foothold in Turkish legal practice, analyzing the rights and obligations they impose on the parties as well as jurisdictional issues such as the determination of the competent court in potential disputes.