Employees of Argedis, a network of petrol garages owned by French energy giant TotalEnergies, are threatening a walkout, saying the product they help distribute has made their living costs too expensive for them to afford.
“We work for TotalEnergies, but we no longer even have the means to fill-up our automobiles to come to work. It’s the ultimate irony,” said an Argedis employee and union member of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT).
In a matter of weeks, the cost of a routine diesel fill-up has shot up from €1.675 per litre in late February to €2.25 per litre today.
While TotalEnergies offers a capped price of €2.09 per litre at its stations, the CGT union notes not all employees live near a company pump, leaving them exposed to soaring open-market rates.
Wages are not increasing to reflect the additional cost of getting to work due to rising fuel prices in the country, said the CGT spokesperson.
Nearly 80 per cent of Argedis employees earn a modest net salary of around €1,600 a month. By comparison, monthly fuel budgets are now hitting €400.
Commuting to work is therefore eating up a quarter of their take-home pay.
The union official warns some employees are opting to go on sick leave because staying home is financially safer than driving to work.
The CGT calls for urgent intervention, and is pushing for measures which include targeted fuel subsidies, exceptional bonuses, and reassessing employer contributions to workers’ commuting costs.
“If management fails to respond and prices continue to soar, we will all need to take action,” says the CGT.
Governments across the EU are scrambling to respond to the rise of fuel prices within the continent.
Many EU governments have implemented caps, tax cut or aid packages to fuel prices that have surged across Europe and Asia in recent weeks. France has so far announced measures to bail out the affected sectors, while meanwhile Hungary implemented a fuel-price cap.
