19 million euros in bonuses: this is the sum that Carlos Tavares, the general manager of the Stellantis automotive group (Peugeot-Citroën-Fiat, etc.) should receive in addition to his salary for the 2021 financial year, including his long-term compensation . A sum disputed by shareholders, unions and even in the political field, before the general meeting of the group on Wednesday afternoon.
Alongside a fixed salary of 2 million euros, the variable part constitutes the majority (89%) of his compensation, with 7.5 million linked to his performance in 2021; 2.4 million for his retirement; 1.7 million related to the successful creation of Stellantis, and free share grants based on objectives to 2026, valued at 5.6 million euros by the group for the year 2021, but at much more by a shareholder.
Profits doubled compared to 2020
The management company PhiTrust, a minority shareholder in Stellantis, announced on Tuesday that it had voted against the remuneration of Carlos Tavares. It estimates it at 66 million euros for the year 2021, in cash and in shares, if very ambitious long-term objectives are reached at their maximum in 2028, and that the action remains at least at its current level. .
For its first year of existence, in a very complicated context for the automotive industry, Stellantis generated a significant net profit of 13.4 billion euros, almost tripled compared to the difficult year 2020.
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“Obviously these are not normal figures,” said government spokesman Gabriel Attal, for whom “we must continue to act at European level (…) with regard to the minimum taxation of large groups” , but also “on the issue of sharing value in business”.
Stellantis disputes the figures put forward by PhiTrust
“Is this remuneration which is the highest of large companies in France (and probably of listed groups in the EU) justified for a person who is not the creator of the company, but is only its manager? “, launched PhiTrust in a press release. “Is it socially justified when the group will probably have to face massive restructuring with job cuts as a result given its excess production capacity? (…)”.
Contacted, the management of Stellantis pointed out that “the figure announced by PhiTrust is false, and Carlos Tavares’ salary for 2021 is indeed 19.1 million euros”. The payment of this remuneration is not subject to the approval of the general meeting.
A sum that remains across the throat of the unions
For the CFDT, this remuneration has “difficulty passing on to employees who are asked to make competitive efforts every day”. At the end of the annual negotiations, the management of Stellantis had not proposed a general increase for its French employees, but an average of +3.2%, or 2.8% for workers, and a bonus of profit-sharing and profit-sharing of a minimum gross of 4,000 euros per employee.
“It is urgent that our politicians finally take real measures on the salary cap of our leaders”, underlined Christine Virassamy, CFDT central delegate. “These situations contribute to, and unfortunately lead to, the taking of extreme positions by citizens during elections”.
“The gap continues to increase between the lowest salaries and the highest salaries”, according to Franck Don, secretary general of the CFTC at Stellantis, who points to a “very worrying” phenomenon. “Tavares is a very good captain of industry but at some point you have to stay within reason”.
The CEO of Renault should receive 4.7 million euros
On the side of Renault, which is a much smaller group, Luca de Meo should be paid for the year 2021 to the tune of 4.7 million euros, including 1.3 million euros of fixed annual, a variable part nearly 1.9 million euros, and 1.5 million euros if Renault achieves its objectives in three years.
His predecessor Carlos Ghosn had reduced his salary by 30% in 2018, to 4.7 million annually, under pressure from its main shareholder, the French state. With the remuneration received as a manager of Nissan, he received a total of 15 million euros per year.
Among the other French groups, the general manager of Dassault Systèmes, Bernard Charlès, was at the top of the ranking of the firm Proxinvest for the financial year 2020 with 20.6 million euros, ahead of Daniel Julien (Teleperformance, 17 million euros) . Carlos Tavares’ compensation for 2020 has not been released.