the question of wages in the face of inflation at the heart of the conflict
For almost a fortnight, the employees of the Total and Esso-ExxonMobil refineries have been on strike to obtain wage increases. Total counter-attacked by communicating the average remuneration of an operator. Expert look in Toulouse on these salaries.
Since the end of September, French refineries have been shaken by a strike movement. Employees are demanding a raise (as a reminder, the Total group recorded exceptional profits in 2021 and 2022). 30% of petrol stations are then gradually hit by fuel shortages. Total response on October 9.
In the evening, when the movement had just been renewed, the management of TotalEnergies decided to reveal compensation of some of the group’s employees, evoking €5,000 gross per month, including profit-sharing.
The next day, Emmanuel Lépine, CGT general secretary of the National Federation of Chemical Industries (FNIC), disputed on RTL, these figures evoking rather a remunerationnot “around 3000 euros for positions with high, very high qualification.“
For 20 years, Patrice Roussel, professor of management and human resources at Capitole 1 University and TSM Research, has been analyzing salary compensation. Based on INSEE data, the expert looked at those of employees of French refineries.
The table above lists salaries by socio-professional category. Refinery employees earn on average €68,763 gross per year. That is a difference of an average of 30,000 euros with the other professions studied. On the INSEE websiteyou can also see the details of the average salaries according to the positions held in the refineries.
In an equivalent position, refinery engineering employees earned 96,000 euros gross per year on average, compared to 65,000 for the food manufacturing sectors. Another example, for unskilled workers, the figures are 36,933 euros gross per month on average in refineries against 29,000 euros in the manufacture of electronic components. The position of driver, meanwhile, is in the average salary.
For Patrice Roussel, “These differences reflect the situation of the French economy for several decades. It is a phenomenon that has been going on for at least the beginning of the 1980s, where sectors in the economy excel and produce extremely high salaries.” The expert finished on this opinion: “Given the data we have, it is an irrational strike movement.”
On social networks, pay slips of refinery operators at Total and ExxonMobil have been published, revealing incomes much lower than the average communicated by the oil giant. But wages remain on average higher than those of other equivalent socio-professional categories, analyzed by INSEE.
In addition to salaries, there are monthly bonuses, linked for example to the restrictive rhythm. In the refineries, work is organized over 24 hours with teams reporting every eight hours to ensure business continuity, including nights, weekends and public holidays. “LEmployees are not fighting for bonuses but for collective wages, for pensions“, then recalls Cédric Caubere, secretary of the CGT 31. Iadds it:
The, it is above all because of the movement of inflation which reduces wages. It’s unfair that employees are not valued when you see Total’s profits. We never look at whether the shareholders are fair or not that they are revalued or if they earn more than elsewhere.
Cédric Caubere, secretary of CGT 31
Since the intervention of Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday October 12 in the evening on France 2, the positions have multiplied. Bruno Le Maire notably affirmed this Thursday on RTL that “Total had to increase its wages“.
For now, the showdown continues.