PARIS (AFP)--A government minister slammed the energy giant
Total SA (TOT) Monday after France's largest firm announced it
would cut jobs despite enjoying the most profitable year in French
corporate history.
Philippe Goebel, managing director of Total Petrochemicals
France, told AFP posts would be lost - mostly through retirements -
at several of the subsidiary's French plants, offices and research
centers but there would be no compulsory redundancies.
Nevertheless, coming less than a month after the Total parent
company announced it had made a French record profit of EUR13.9
billion last year, the announcement sparked anger.
"In this period of crisis, many firms are in difficult
situations, have no profits or falling turnover and nevertheless
are doing all they can to protect jobs," complained Employment
Minister Laurent Wauquiez.
"That a group like Total, which made billions in profits, isn't
able to set an example in terms of employment at a time like this
sticks in my throat...They'd be well advised to change their
behavior quickly," he warned.
Goebel, however, insisted the job cuts were a result of
overcapacity in world petrochemical production and promised the
firm would create 100 new jobs in a partnership deal with GDF-Suez
(GSZ.FR) to produce solar panels.
The job losses were announced at a meeting with labor
unions.
Afterwards, Aldo Scalzo of the CGT union, accused bosses of
leaving French "industry on the scrapheap through a policy of
outsourcing production to the Middle East, Qatar and Algeria."