Asked about the remuneration that the CEO of the Stellantis automotive group Carlos Tavares should receive for the year 2021, Emmanuel Macron, guest of “Presidential Mornings” this Friday, April 15 on FranceInfo, replied that he found it “shocking and excessive”, then deploying an argument on the theme of social justice and the sharing of added value, while recognizing the need a cap on very high salaries.
Journalist Marc Fauvelle had posed the question to the President of the Republic and candidate for his re-election on April 24:
“On the remuneration of Carlos Tavares, boss of Stellantis, 19 million euros planned for the year 2021… The shareholders said no during a vote at the general meeting but they do not have the power to block this compensation… Does the figure shock you?
“Obviously, and I think we’re all in the same situation: either we say to ourselves ‘why not me’, or we say to ourselves that it’s inadmissible… and, finally, it’s shocking, it’s excessive…”, replied Emmanuel Macron.
Marc Fauvelle immediately bounced back with a question aimed at getting the candidate to react to his program: “So what are you doing? »
Emmanuel Macron began by setting the limits of political power in the face of commercial law:
“It’s very simple, the State strictly speaking is not a shareholder of the company, and yes the Public Investment Bank also opposed this remuneration, but the great difficulty of all these subjects which indignant is that they have to be approached in Europe, because Stellantis has its board of directors and its governance in the Netherlands.
The risk that “society, at some point, will explode”
The performance of the year 2021 having been exceptional, the general manager, Carlos Tavares, should eventually receive a total of 19 million euros for the financial year. For the record, in 2021, the total remuneration of Carlos Tavares amounts to 66 million euros. In detail, it consists of a fixed part of 19 million euros, to which are added bonuses, the free share plan and long-term compensation.
Wanting to be a driving force in leading this fight aimed at preventing “abusive” remuneration, the President of the Republic explained on the one hand that it had to be dealt with at European level to be effective – which would take time – and insisted on the risk of social explosion if the subject was not treated at all:
“We must set ceilings and have governance for our Europe that makes things acceptable, otherwise society, at some point, explodes. People cannot have purchasing power problems (…) and see these sums”he explained.
“What we have to be able to do is, as we did with the minimum tax and the fight against evasion, that we convince our European partners to carry out a reform which makes it possible to supervise the remuneration of our directors”he specified.
In France, in companies, a pact on the sharing of added value
At the Franco-French level, Emmanuel Macron also wants to “change the pact for sharing added value in the company”.
“When we pay shareholders, we must pay employees through profit-sharing – participation and / or by the purchasing power bonus”, he added, citing a measure of his project aimed at increasing the Macron bonus to 6,000 euros.
On BFMTV, the challenger of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen, also reacted, proposing to “bring in employees as shareholders”:
“Of course it’s shocking, it’s even more shocking when it’s business leaders who have put their company in difficulty”, reacted the other finalist Marine Le Pen, on BFMTV. “But I believe that one of the means of mitigating these remunerations which are out of proportion to economic life, it may be precisely to bring in employees as shareholders”, added the candidate of the RN.
Gathered in a virtual general meeting, a majority of Stellantis shareholders voted – in an advisory capacity – against the manufacturer’s salary policy which remunerates its managers according to their performance. They had approved it in early 2021 when the group was born, resulting from the merger of Peugeot-Citroën-Opel (PSA) and Fiat-Chrysler (FCA).
(with AFP and Archyde.com)