Stellantis offers share plan to 87,000 workers in France, Italy

PARIS (Reuters) -About 87,000 Stellantis employees in Italy and France will be offered preferential conditions to become shareholders in an attempt by the automaker to help them with cost of living pressures and incentivise performance, unions said.

The move by the owner of Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler and Jeep comes as companies face pressure to help staff weather a squeeze on their finances from rising interest rates and inflation.

Workers in the U.S. car manufacturing heartland of Detroit have staged a month-long strike at the Detroit Three automakers, which include Stellantis.

Stellantis was not immediately available for comment on the scheme, under which 42,000 employees in France and 45,000 in Italy will get a 20% discount for the purchase of shares, for an amount worth up to 25% of their current annual salary.

Italy's FIM, Uilm, Fismic, Uglm and Aqcfr unions and France's CFE-CGC union said in separate statements that Stellantis will match the sum invested by each employee with a contribution of up to 1,000 euros ($1,055).

The CFE-CGC union welcomed the share plan, but said it must not "allow us to forget the legitimate expectations of employees for a substantial increase in base salaries".

Italian unions also welcomed the plan, although it involved risk capital, as it supports workers involvement.

In France, Stellantis has already offered pay increases and a one-off bonus, while in Italy it agreed higher salary terms for most if its employees in March.

Only 1.4% of Stellantis' share capital currently belongs to its employees worldwide.

($1 = 0.9476 euros)

(Reporting by Guillaume Gilles in Paris and Giulio Piovaccari in Milan; Writing by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Richard Lough, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith)