Guidance on New Employee Shareholder Status

The government has produced guidance on employee shareholder status, which came into force yesterday (1st September 2013).

https://www.gov.uk/employee-shareholders

An interesting point is that the government states: “If an employee shareholder sells their shares, their employment status does not change. A change of employment status would require a change of employment contract to alter the employment status.” As Daniel Barnett has queried could this then entitle an employer to insist on an automatic buy-back of shares, say after one month, to avoid the employee having any long-term shareholding.