"Prime Macron": Total condemned for not having kept promises to employees

Total was ordered to pay an additional bonus to employees of one of its subsidiaries who considered themselves aggrieved after receiving a bonus of 400 euros instead of the 1,500 euros promised by CEO Patrick Pouyanné, according to the judgment consulted on Saturday by the 'AFP.

On December 11, 2018, the boss of the oil giant tweeted a message in which he promised "an exceptional bonus of 1,500 euros for all our employees in France".

In the midst of the "yellow vests" crisis, Emmanuel Macron had just announced the possibility for companies to pay a bonus to their employees exempt from social contributions and income tax.

Legal action by the CGT

But the employees of the Aircraft Fuel Supply and Storage Company (Sasca) had initially only benefited from 400 euros instead of the 1,500 promised.

The CGT then took legal action to recover the difference.

Sasca is a 60% subsidiary of Total Marketing Service, itself a 100% subsidiary of Total SA.

For the court, it appears that "SA TOTAL controls it because it indirectly holds a fraction of the capital giving it the majority of voting rights".

The promise made by Total to pay a bonus of 1,500 euros to all employees therefore concerned those of Sasca, estimated the judicial court of Créteil in its decision dated last November, as reported by the specialized site ActuEL CSE then the daily Les Echos.

Total paid the difference

But if the simple tweet of Patrick Pouyanné "constitutes an insufficient element to characterize a unilateral commitment" of Total, an internal communication transmitted at the time to the unions commits it in the payment of this bonus to "all the employees of the subsidiaries", according to the court.

The court therefore ordered the oil giant to supplement the bonus of 400 euros from which Sasca employees had benefited.

Asked by AFP on Saturday, Total said it had paid the balance of the premium in accordance with the judgment, without further comment.