FCA Powertrain Poland is located in Bielsko-Biala in the south of the country and manufactures car engines for Stellantis.
Andrzej Grygiel/PAP

Multinational automotive manufacturing corporation Stellantis has reached an agreement on voluntary redundancies in its FCA Powertrain Poland unit.

FCA Powertrain Poland is located in Bielsko-Biala in the south of the country and manufactures car engines for Stellantis. On February 20, the unit’s management board announced plans to lay off 300 of its 800 workers due to new European emissions regulations and the resulting slump in demand for internal combustion engines.

On Saturday, FCA Powertrain Poland’s unions and management board signed a redundancy agreement which will come into force on Monday.

Under the agreement, employees will have a choice to move to a Stellantis facility in Gliwice or Tychy, also in southern Poland, with a two-year job guarantee, or leave the company altogether and not return for at least five years. The former group will receive severance pay ranging between 12 and 14 monthly wages, while the latter one will receive between 8 and 24 monthly wages, depending on the period of service, according to Wanda Stróżyk, leader of the Solidarity union’s division for the Stellantis Group.

People who are to reach retirement age within four years with receive from 13 to 24 monthly wages.

“From Monday until the end of March employees will be able to apply for the voluntary redundancy programme,” Stróżyk told PAP on Saturday.

“From what we can see we can conclude that there will be more than 300,” she went on to say. “Ultimately, it is the employer who decides who is going to leave.”

Stellantis was created in 2021 through a merger of the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group.