Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has restored full pay for its salaried workforce.
Unlike General Motors, which announced its own restoration of full pay for salaried workers, the move was not earlier than expected, according to FCA, but was in the planned time frame for addressing the financial impact of the coronavirus. Ford had announced a similar plan beginning in May for 300 executives to take salary deferrals for at least five months.
The auto industry, along with the rest of the economy, has been hammered by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this year, automakers shut down production in response to virus spread and stay-at-home orders. Factories are humming again, but the impact of COVID-19 continues to be a challenge.
GM told its white collar employees on Tuesday that the 20% pay deferral for 69,000 salaried workers worldwide would end on Aug. 1, a month earlier than expected. For FCA’s salaried workforce, 15,000 of whom work in the United States, that happened on July 1, according to spokeswoman Shawn Morgan. The FCA workers are to receive their deferred pay, without additional interest, by mid-March 2021; GM said it would return the money to its workers in October with 6% interest.
FCA CEO Mike Manley had told employees in an email in March that the company’s leadership and salaried workforce would take a temporary cut or deferral. Manley said then that the moves would help avoid layoffs of permanent employees in the coming quarter.
On Thursday, Morgan provided a statement about the pay cut and deferral efforts. FCA did not say how much money the program saved, although it’s possible that information could be provided Friday when the company releases its earnings results for the last quarter.
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“FCA took swift actions in response to the pandemic to protect the financial health of the company. The senior leaders of our team took pay deferrals equivalent to 20% while our global executives took pay cuts. These pay cuts ranged from 20% up to 50% at the CEO level. We deeply appreciate the shared sacrifice from our employees and leadership whose pay cut and or deferral has now been reinstated since July 1. Also since April, our non-executive Board of Directors (including board chairman) unanimously agreed to forgo their remaining 2020 compensation which remains unchanged,” according to the statement.
Staff writer Jamie L. LaReau contributed to this report. Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.
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