On November 13, Stellantis announced that to reduce expenses while embracing a new United Auto Workers contract and preparing for the switch to electric vehicles, it’s offering voluntary buyouts to 6,400 salaried U.S. employees.
The buyouts would affect roughly 12,700 salaried U.S. employees who are not currently covered by a union. A further 2,500 salaried Stellantis employees in the U.S. are unionized and, therefore, ineligible for the present buyout offer.
However, salaried staff must have worked for the company for at least five years to qualify for the voluntary departure package. Moreover, workers who accepted the inducement would leave before December 31, 2023.
Stellantis stated that it was doing “necessary structural actions to protect our operations and the company” and mentioned that it was getting ready “for the transition to EVs.”
Back in April, Stellantis’ COO, Mark Stewart, informed staff that assessing the company’s operations “has made it clear that we must become more efficient.” The automaker also said in April that it provided 33,500 U.S. employees with voluntary leave packages. That offer covered about 2,500 salaried and 31,000 hourly workers in the U.S. It also offered certain Canadian employees voluntary buyouts.
As per the terms of the UAW contract, Stellantis committed to providing experienced production and skilled trade members with buyouts of $50,000. However, on October 31, Stellantis announced that it would look at possible cost reductions to make up for the substantial financial blow caused by strikes in North America that resulted in significant pay hikes.
According to Stellantis CFO Natalie Knight, the six-week strikes were surprisingly prolonged and would cause the company to lose less than $800 million in earnings for 2023.
