Fuel shortage: true or false, does a refinery operator really earn 5,000 euros per month as Total claims?

For 22 days, the refineries and the fuel depots are on strike. While the unions are demanding a Salary increasethe employers first proposed a prime who is far from satisfying everyone. So, despite the pressure from government, it’s the status quo and with distributors, and fuel is starting to run out. In the meantime, in the media, the two camps take turns shooting.

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Fuel shortage: “It would be war” if the government requisitioned strikers to operate the refineries, warns the CGT

The force of the war

A press release from TotalEnergies also caused a lot of reaction on social networks. In essence, this famous press release explains that a refinery operator earns an average of 5,000 euros gross per month, salary, bonus and profit-sharing included. Said bonus reaching (on average) between 7,000 and 9,000 euros per employee this year, according to France Info.

A calculation obviously disputed by the unions. According to them, the salary is “2,500 euros gross at the start of a career and around 3,000 euros for an employee with 20 years of seniority”. And even with the bonuses, the bar of 5,000 euros is never reached if we are to believe CGTwhich still calls for a 10%% increase in wages.

Small detail: refinery operators only represent a little more than 10% of the workforce at TotalEnergies, ie 4,000 of the 35,000 employees.