Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced on Tuesday requisition measures for unblock Esso-ExxonMobil group fuel depots
, where the strike for wages was renewed on Tuesday, just like at TotalEnergies. “I asked the prefects to initiate, as permitted by law, the procedure for requisitioning the personnel essential to the operation of the depots of this company”, declared the head of government during questions to the government. denouncing a decision “illegal”, the CGT has announced its intention to “take the matter to court in summary proceedings” as soon as the decrees are published. What are requisitions? What consequences can this announcement have? France Bleu takes stock.
Is requisitioning legal?
The possibility of making requisitions is strictly governed by the Defense Code and the General Code of Local Authorities. When he considers that a strike urgent threat to public order, security or the needs of the nation, the government can requisition striking employees, ie demand that some of them return to work. “This is the case here because emergency services, nurses can no longer move, school transport can no longer be provided”, believes Me Nathalie Nailler, labor lawyer at the bar of Caen. It also mentions the risk “car accident” because of the queues of vehicles waiting at the pump, as it happened Monday in the North
.
These are two “interests of equal value” who “collide”analyzes the lawyer: the “right to strike with constitutional value and the safeguard of public order and the continuity of public services”. But “the State can quite ask for requisitions”.
However, the decree must be very precise on the “nature of the services, their duration and their terms”, she warns. These requisitions must be very framed, otherwise the judge in chambers can quash the decree. The judge verifies that these measures are limited in time and limited in the number of personnel requisitioned, a “fraction of total workforce” strictly necessary. The idea is not to “restore service” in full butestablish a minimum service. The order can be canceled if, for example, almost all the staff is requisitioned. “It has already happened in the past at Total”, in 2010 at the Grandpuits refinery. In addition to the judge in chambers, the Council of State can also be seized.
The requisitioned employees have an obligation to obey, adds Me Nathalie Nailler. A refusal would constitute an offence, which can be punished: up to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 euros.
Will gas stations be restocked?
Yes, according to Olivier Gantois, president of the French Union of Petroleum Industries (UFIP Energies and Mobilities), guest of franceinfo this Tuesday. “The product is there. Finished product shipping activities tankers to customers and service stations have been suspended but they can resume as part of a requisition” he explained.
The personnel concerned by the government decision are the operators who open the valves and the tanks of the two Esso depots concerned – Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) – are currently full. When the prefectural decrees are published, the tank trucks will therefore be able to load gasoline and diesel again and transport them to the stations, everywhere in France.
Nevertheless, the return to normal is not for now. As mentioned by Me Nathalie Nailer above, the requisitions will only allow a “minimum service”. In addition, the strike continues in the refineries whose staff is not affected by the requisitions. “The two Esso refineries that are currently shut down represent approximately a third of French production”, according to Olivier Gantois. If France has been importing fuel since the start of the strike, the return to normal can only take place when we are no longer in “a degraded logistics situation. Logistics is organized to receive imports and refinery productions.” If the refineries restart, “it will take several days” before returning to a normal situation according to this specialist.
In addition the strike continues to spread at TotalEnergies, the main player in the sector. This Tuesday evening, employees of the Donges refinery,
near Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), announced that they would in turn stop working on Wednesday.
“Not a drop [de carburant] will not leave the site“, indicated Fabien Privé Saint-Lanne, CGT delegate, to France Blue Loire Ocean.
“What makes us react: there are two points. Firstly, Total’s complete blocking of the discussions and demands of our colleagues from other establishments for almost three weeks now (…) And secondly, the requisitions which have just been made by Elisabeth Terminal within Exxon, which are an attack on the constitutional right to strike”, he added to AFP.
TotalEnergies announced this Tuesday evening to invite the representative unions which “do not participate in the strike movement” at a meeting of “consultations and exchanges” Wednesday afternoon. “If the CGT lifts all site blockages before noon tomorrow, it will be welcome at this dialogue meeting”specifies the French energy giant in a press release.