“Requisitions are not acceptable,” thundered again this Thursday morning on France Info the boss of Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot. An opinion shared by the CGT, while four employees essential to the operation of the fuel depot of the ExxonMobil refinery in Seine-Maritime were requisitioned on Wednesday or Thursday. Its national secretary, Philippe Martinez, even announced Wednesday evening that summary proceedings would be filed in court to challenge this decision.
“Mr. Sarkozy had done the same thing in 2010 and the French State had been condemned by the International Labor Organization (ILO). What was valid in 2010 is still valid today. We are alongside the employees to defend them,” denounced the union leader. “President Sarkozy had been condemned by the International Labor Organization, which is an offshoot of the UN, for undermining the right to strike,” he already released in Le Parisien on Tuesday evening. But is it so true? We take stock
France condemned by the ILO
In the fall of 2010, in full pension reform, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy had requisitioned some striking employees of several refineries or oil depots so that they are released. On February 17, 2011, the CGT had seized the International Labor Organization because it wanted to denounce “the violation of freedom of association, and in particular of the right to strike”.
The ILO issued its decision nine months later, in November 2011. In this very long text, its Committee on Freedom of Association notes that “the object of the requisitions concerned the maintenance of public order, and in particular the the prevention of risks related to public safety and health”. In addition, the requisition orders “had a deliberately limited scope in the nature of the work required, in the number of people affected as well as in the duration of the mobilization”. For all these reasons, “the requisitioning of some of the striking employees to ensure the refueling needs of priority vehicles could be similar to the temporary establishment of a minimum service to respond to a public order problem which could have an impact on the life, health or safety of the population”.
VIDEO. Requisition in refineries: the boss of the CGT denounces a “scandalous” process
Thus, requisitioning personnel can be justified – despite violations of the right to strike – for the sake of maintaining public order, provided that the number of employees is strictly necessary.
However, the ILO did not issue a blank check to the government of the time. Indeed, the authority had “regretted that the authorities had not sought more to engage in negotiations on the organization of minimum services with the representative organizations of the workers on strike and the employers concerned”. Thus, the government was asked to “give priority in the future, in the face of a situation of paralysis of a non-essential service but which would justify the imposition of a minimum operating service, the participation of workers’ and employers’ organizations involved in this exercise, and not to resort to imposing the measure unilaterally”.
“The ILO has remonstrated with France, but without condemning this procedure as the CGT suggests”, summarized in 2016 with the Parisian the professor of social law François Taquet. Contacted this Thursday morning, the CGT was not yet able to answer us at this time.
Requisition orders broken in France
If Philippe Martinez does not speak about it directly, one can also wonder what the administrative justice, seized by the unions, had answered at the time. The courts had rendered decisions… variable. Concerning the Grandpuits refinery (Seine-et-Marne), the administrative court of Melun had suspended the decree because the requisition concerned “virtually all the personnel of the refinery” and it “had caused a serious and manifestly illegal attack the right to strike”.
Conversely, justice had validated the decree of requisition of the personnel of the Total oil depot of Gargenville (Yvelines). A few days later, the Council of State had even approved this decision because of “the reality of the risks weighing on the maintenance of public order”, in particular because Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport “did not have more than three days of air fuel stocks”. Thus, the requisition measure was “necessary and proportionate”.
Regarding the summary proceedings contesting the requisitions to ExxonMobil this year, the administrative court should rule quickly given the urgency of the situation. The government, for its part, threatens to requisition personnel from other refineries or fuel depots if the blockages persist.
In summary
- In 2011, the International Labor Organization considered that requisitioning staff could be justified, under certain conditions (in particular to be limited to the number of employees strictly necessary).
- The administrative courts had rendered decisions that varied from place to place, depending on the local context and the content of the requisition order.