PARIS (Reuters) – Stellantis presented to its unions a new employee shareholding project in France and Italy in order to involve its teams in the group’s performance and try to provide a response to the purchasing power crisis in two of its historic countries.

The car manufacturer, born from the merger between the French PSA and the American-Italian FCA, detailed this evolution of its Company Savings Plan (PEE) in France on Thursday during a Central CSE, two sources told Reuters close to Stellantis.

The first phase of this plan concerns France but also Italy in similar ways, they added, without further details on the system envisaged on Italian soil.

In France, 42,000 employees will be able to become shareholders under preferential conditions – a 20% discount on the value of the share and a matching contribution from the group of up to 100% of the sums invested, up to 1,000 euros. .

In a leaflet, the CFE-CGC welcomed the return of this system, “an important signal sent by management for a fairer distribution of the wealth produced”.

“This progress on the sharing of value must not, however, make us forget the legitimate expectations of employees (as to) the substantial increase in basic salaries,” added the union, for whom this is the best response to the reduction purchasing power in the current inflationary context.

Only 1.4% of Stellantis’ capital currently belongs to its employees, all countries combined.

Many automakers, including Stellantis, have also responded to soaring inflation to multi-decade highs with wage hikes and bumper bonuses over the past year.

But the subject remains sensitive. In the United States, the automobile sector remains faced with a vast strike, particularly on the question of remuneration, while in France the unions are calling for a day of demonstrations for wages and against austerity on Friday.

(Report by Gilles Guillaume, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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