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Fil Williams, DOL senior employee benefits law specialist for the Employee Benefits Security Administration's Office of Regulations and Interpretations, said that the department still plans to re-propose regulations that would specify the conditions under which a stock appraiser would be deemed a

The Department of Labor has sued the fiduciaries of Enron's 401(k) plan and ESOP for improperly encouraging employees to invest in Enron stock and for continuing to hold Enron shares in the plan when there were reasons to believe that was not prudent.

Acknowledging the feedback it had received from Congress and ESOP companies, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it would not adopt a proposed regulation that would have made appraisers of ESOP shares plan fiduciaries. Instead, the DOL will re-propose the rule after additional input.

On April 14, 2016, Timothy Hauser of the US Department of Labor addressed the NCEO's annual conference.

The ten-person nonprofit organization Data Driven Detroit is becoming an employee-owned company, according to an article in Crain's Business Detroit.

There has been much hand-wringing among stock analysts over employee influence in the CEO selection process at United Airlines. These analysts will wring even more now that employees will be given a voice in how executives are compensated.

United Airlines will remain the most closely watched employee ownership company for some time.

On March 28, the Department of Labor sued Wilmington Trust N.A., alleging that it relied on a flawed valuation in a $46 million ESOP transaction involving Stargate Apparel Inc. and Rivstar Apparel Inc.

Lawsuits continue to be filed in stock drop cases for ESOPs and, more often, 401(k) plans invested in company stock in 2007, but the pace of new filings has dropped to a trickle.

One of the largest ESOPs in a public company was that of Hooker Furniture in North Carolina. When the plan was formed in 2000, the company had about 2,000 U.S. employees, and the ESOP owned about a third of the stock. Now Hooker has shrunk to about 1,000 employees as a result of outsourcing.