In a press release dated October 10, TotalEnergies management stated that "the average pay level of TotalEnergies refinery operators in France" is "€5,000." Several commentators reacted to this, suggesting that such a salary level undermined the legitimacy of the strikers' fight for their wages.
The Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) union, which initiated the strike movement in the French oil group's refineries, has not taken kindly to the group's statement. "We don't know where this figure comes from," said Thierry Defresne, CGT secretary of the TotalEnergies SE European works council. "These are non-existent data, inaccurate figures that are only published to smear the strikers."
Hakim Belouz, a Force Ouvrière (FO) union delegate at TotalEnergies, also believed that the Group's management was trying to "turn public opinion against the employees." Geoffrey Caillon, a delegate for the Confédération française démocratique du travail (CFDT) – a union that did not take part in the strike – also regrets management's communication, which "is taking the whole of France as a witness to show that our salaries are not that low" and "will not tend to calm spirits."
What does the €5,000 euros figure refer to?
The €5,000 presented by the oil and gas giant corresponds, according to the company, to the monthly pay, before tax, of "workers and supervisors" in the refineries, and notably includes bonuses for hardship, profit-sharing, and participation.
Excluding profit-sharing bonuses – which, due to the company's good results, were on average 9,100 euros in 2022 – TotalEnergies claims that the average monthly pay of a refinery operator is €4,300 before tax.
Several CGT union officials were quick to deny those figures. Emmanuel Lépine, General Secretary of the Fédération Nationale des Industries Chimiques (FNIC-CGT, National Federation of Chemical Industries), told RTL private radio that the average salary of a refinery operator "is around €3,000," noting that these were "highly skilled positions."
In a video posted on Twitter, a CGT delegate and TotalEnergies employee mentioned an average of around €2,500. He insisted that these salaries include several bonuses related to the hardship of the job, with teams working "three eight-hour shifts [6 am to 2 pm, 2 pm to 10 pm and 10 pm to 6 am], three weekends out of five, and inhaling fuel and chemicals."
The branch agreement for the oil industry provides bonuses worth 18% of salary, excluding those, for "continuous shift workers who work in successive shifts on a 24-hour rotation, without interruption at night, on Sundays and on public holidays."
According to the French Union of Oil, Energy and Mobility Industries (UFIPEM), the base salary of an employee at the beginning of his or her career in a refining company is close to €2,200 per month, plus a bonus of around €540. In other words, €2,740 per month before tax at the beginning of a career.
For an employee with almost 20 years' seniority, the base salary is around €3,600 before tax, to which must be added almost €1,200 in bonuses. This represents a monthly salary of €4,800 before tax after a 20-year career. UFIPEM also notes that "85% of employees in the sector have a real salary that is more than 10% higher than the agreed minimum." The €5,000 per month claimed by TotalEnergies seems much closer to the salary of a very experienced refinery operator than to that of an average employee.
'Up to what salary level does one have the right to fight for one's purchasing power?'
TotalEnergies did not respond to our inquiry into the median salary in its refineries. The union leaders contacted did not wish to communicate the precise figures of remuneration either, stating that they did not want to fall into the trap set by their management.
In fact, they all point out that TotalEnergies employees are calling for a pay rise in view of the company's good results. The group posted $10.6 billion (€10.9 billion) in profits in the first half of 2022 and recently paid its shareholders an exceptional interim dividend of €2.62 billion.
The CGT is calling for a 10% wage increase, including 7% for inflation and 3% for wealth sharing. Mr. Defresne asks, "Up to what salary level does one have the right to fight for one's purchasing power? Our force of labor is worth less in 2022 than in 2021, and we should accept that? Do we have to be eating rats to have the right to complain about inflation?" His FO colleague Mr. Belouz agrees. "Even if our salary was high, would that be a problem? Is there a law that forbids strikes above 5,000 euros a month?"