US businessman shares ₹2,155 crore bonus with employees after company sale
Washington: An American businessman has drawn global attention after distributing nearly ₹2,155 crore (about $240 million) in bonuses among his employees following the sale of his company, in a rare instance of wealth-sharing in corporate America.
Graham Walker, 46, former chief executive officer of electrical equipment enclosure manufacturer Fibrebond, ensured that the company’s roughly 540 employees directly benefited from its sale to Eaton Corporation earlier this year for ₹15,265 crore (around $1.7 billion). Despite employees not holding any company stock, Walker insisted on allocating a share of the proceeds to them before finalising the deal.
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According to a Wall Street Journal report, Walker refused to proceed with the sale unless prospective buyers agreed to reserve 15 per cent of the total proceeds for employees. The payouts were triggered in June and are being distributed over five years, averaging approximately $443,000 per employee.
Several employees initially believed the announcement was a joke. Later they used the money to clear debts, buy vehicles, pay for higher education or strengthen their retirement savings.
Lesia Key, who joined Fibrebond in 1995 at the age of 21, said the bonus had transformed her life. Having started at an hourly wage of $5.35, she rose through the ranks and was, by early this year, leading a team of 18 people and overseeing facilities spanning 254 acres. “Before, we were going paycheck to paycheck. I can live now; I’m grateful,” she was quoted as saying.
Responding to questions on NBC show, about whether the Walker family considered distributing an even larger share, Walker said placing “close to a quarter-billion dollars in employees’ hands felt fair”.
Founded in 1982 by Walker’s father, Claud Walker, along with 11 others, Fibrebond weathered multiple crises over the decades, including a major factory fire in 1998 and the collapse of the dot-com bubble. Employees, the report noted, remained with the company through difficult periods. In later years, Fibrebond made a significant $150 million investment to expand its capacity to build infrastructure for data centres.
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Gujarat to amend marriage registration rules, cites 'misuse' of existing norms
Gandhinagar (PTI): The Gujarat government on Friday announced it plans to amend rules framed under the Gujarat Registration of Marriages Act, saying the move is aimed at plugging loopholes in the existing system.
Speaking in the assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi stressed the need for new norms, alleging that “innocent girls are being trapped” and such practices were spreading “like termites” in society.
He said several people and social organisations had urged the government to amend the marriage registration rules to prevent misuse of procedural gaps.
Referring to what he termed “love jihad”, Sanghavi said it amounted to a “cultural invasion” and asserted that the BJP government could no longer ignore the issue. He said the amendments are aimed at strengthening safeguards in the registration process.
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He said objections and suggestions on the proposed amendments are now invited from the public for 30 days.
“People and organisations can register their suggestions and objections on the Health and Family Welfare Department’s website. The new rules will be implemented after considering these suggestions and objections received by the department,” he said.
Later, the minister’s office shared a document detailing the proposed procedure for marriage registration under the amended rules.
As per the proposed rules, every marriage registration application will need to be submitted before the Assistant Registrar, while applicants must attach a declaration stating whether the bride and groom have informed their parents about the marriage.
Moreover, the bride and groom will have to provide the names, addresses, Aadhaar and contact details of their parents in the application.
The parents of the bride and groom will be informed within ten working days as soon as the Assistant Registrar is satisfied, according to the proposed rules.
The Assistant Registrar will forward the application to the Registrar of the district or taluka concerned. The marriage will be registered 30 days after the Registrar is satisfied that the requirements specified in sub-rules have been met.
The Registrar will upload all these details to an online portal to be created by the government, say the proposed rules.
AAP MLA Hemant Ahir, who had on Thursday introduced a private member's Bill in this regard, and BJP MLA Lavingji Thakor congratulated the deputy CM in the House, saying the proposed changes were the need of the hour.
They said innocent girls were being lured by anti-social elements who exploited loopholes in the existing system to solemnise and register marriages.
