Stellantis pushes European white-collar workers back to office full-time

Stellantis Orders Full-Time Office Return for European White-Collar Staff

Stellantis' Full-Time Office Mandate: Strategy, Implementation, and Reactions

By Gilles Guillaume

PARIS, March 12 (Reuters) - Stellantis is pushing white-collar workers in Europe back to the office full-time to boost efficiency, the ailing carmaker told Reuters, as it seeks to revive profits and regain momentum after huge losses last year.

The owner of brands ranging from Jeep to Fiat is deep into a turnaround drive after a shift to electric vehicles backfired badly. CEO Antonio Filosa is looking to cut costs and meet demand for combustion-engine cars by resurrecting diesel models.

Stellantis wants tens of thousands of European employees in the office full-time by next year, a spokesperson said, making it the first major European automaker to make such a move.

Details of the plan have not been previously reported.

Background: Remote Work Policies Post-Pandemic

In the years since the COVID pandemic, workers in France, Italy and Germany were allowed to work as little as 1.5 days per week in the office, the spokesperson said.

The return-to-office decision is "a competitive priority" of Stellantis' turnaround and will be tailored to individual countries' labour rules and work space availability, the company said.

Stellantis has already informed U.S. salaried workers they must return to full-time office work from March 30.

CEO Filosa's Overhaul and Strategic Shift

Back-to-Office Push as Part of Turnaround Strategy

BACK-TO-OFFICE PUSH PART OF CEO'S STRATEGY OVERHAUL

Since his appointment last summer, Filosa has set to work reversing much of the strategy laid out by former CEO Carlos Tavares, who was ousted in December 2024.

Filosa has overhauled Stellantis' operations, shaking up its management, reviving combustion-engine models and chasing lower-margin fleet sales to boost U.S. sales.

Last month, Stellantis announced 22.2 billion euros ($26.1 billion) in charges related to over-optimistic EV sales expectations.

Implementation Timeline Across Europe

The return to office full-time will start in France, Italy and Germany and "progressively extend to other countries", Stellantis wrote in slides shown at a recent European Works Council select committee meeting, two union sources said.

In Germany, Stellantis told its approximately 5,400 white-collar workers the move to full-time office work will "take regional circumstances into account," the spokesperson said.

The firm wants 60% of its 8,000 Italian office workers to spend three days a week in the office by September 2026, rising to five days by 2027.

Stellantis told its roughly 8,500 French white-collar employees by email on February 9 they should start moving to three days per week on site from mid-year, the spokesperson added.

Employee and Union Reactions

French Union Demands Talks

FRENCH UNION DEMANDS TALKS CITING 'MAJOR CONCERN'

Engineer Jean-Marie Roy and hundreds of other white-collar workers returned to an office this week in Poissy, west of Paris, that recently reopened following a refurbishment that will now allow it to host up to 1,200 employees working three days a week.

"It is a little like a flashback", Roy said.

Union Opposition and Employee Sentiment

The main union representing Stellantis workers in France, however, opposes the plan. And in an online poll the CFE-CGC union set up for all affected employees, over 90% of respondents opposed a full-time office return.

The union has demanded talks on the plans, arguing flexibility leads to better work-life balance and cuts employees' commuting expenses and time.

"This abrupt reversal ... undermines 10 years of pioneering policy on agility," CFE-CGC union representative Laurent Oechsel told Reuters. "It creates a climate of major concern."

Comparison with Industry Peers

The full-time office return puts Stellantis at odds with peers.

Renault employees are currently required to spend at least two days a week in the office. German automakers Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz encourage individual teams to set rules for remote work.

($1 = 0.8494 euros)

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume in Paris, Nora Eckert in Detroit, Giulio Piovaccari in Milan and Rachel More in Berlin; Editing by Nick Carey and Joe Bavier)