This sounds an awful lot like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip, which has been illegal for a long time and for good reason.

Company scrip was company currency and employees were required to be paid in it and could only be used in company stores. Employee stock is getting some of your pay, voluntarily, in stock which can be sold in market. As long as company doesn't own housing or run grocery store, it isn't scrip.

If the stock can be sold for legal currency it is nothing at all like company script.