My Question is regarding a program run by corporate companies called Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Details of the program are as follows,

1) Any employee of the company, who is eligible. can participate at his own will (it is not a mandatory program).

2) This program is run over a time period (generally 6 months).

3) Over the above period, company deducts a fixed percentage of Employee’s salary (say I5%), for purchasing company’s stocks. And at the end, employee is paid in company’s stocks of value equal to the percentage of salary deducted.

4) But at the time of payout, stocks are valued at a price that was minimum over that time period, not the current market price.

(For example, it a 6 month program starts in January. Let’s, say stock price is $120 then, in March say it dips to $100 and at the time of payout, in June. it rises to $150. Now the company will assume the price as $100 when paying back the employee. So. if $100,00 was deducted from an employee’s salary over 6 months, he will receive 100 stocks at the end)

5) Company also gives a 25% discount on the above price, but it is irrespective of this program. i.e., if an employee of a company wants to buy its stock, company gives this discount as a gesture of goodwill.

My question is: Is this program halal? Can Muslims participate in it?