It is an exercise in transparency that could ultimately turn into a spark on the pickets of refineries and fuel depots. “Tired” of being told that his salary was increased by 52% last year, the CEO of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné took social networks to witness on Tuesday to explain that his remuneration had been “constant since 2017” and “less higher” than that of the “other European and American majors”.
“I am tired of this accusation of having increased myself by 52% – here is the real evolution of my remuneration since 2017”, he wrote, this Tuesday, on Twitter Patrick Pouyanné (@PPouyanne) by publishing a table showing the evolution of his remuneration since 2017, while his group is in the midst of a wage dispute with more than 20 days of strike action by the CGT in certain refineries of the group.
According to this document, taken from the figures published each year in the group’s annual report, the leader was indeed increased by 51.7% in 2021, to 5,944,129 euros.
Scandal for Nupes deputies
But this increase follows a 36.4% drop in his compensation in 2020, reflecting a salary cut that he “voluntarily” applied to himself during the health crisis and the decline in the variable part of his salary this year. there linked to the results of the group. In 2020, his compensation had decreased to 3.91 million euros. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, it amounted to 6.15 million euros, more than that of 2021. In 2018, 5.8 million euros, and in 2017, 6 million euros.
“It is not me who sets my compensation, but the Board of Directors of TotalEnergies which sets it and the shareholders who approve it – it is certainly high, but comparable to my peers in the CAC 40 and much lower than that other European majors [ne] s and american [e] s “, also explains Patrick Pouyanné in a second tweet.
But the publication of these figures has also been accompanied by a large number of criticisms, especially on the left. “So in fact the annual 6 million, it’s been going on for years,” continues Nupes deputy from Paris, Aymeric Caron.
“Dear Patrick Pouyanné, all my support to you who, in 2020, had to survive with 3,918,263 euros. Or 2,545 minimum wage. So little when you achieve the feat of not paying any corporate tax in France. Justice was restored in 2021. 5,944,129 euros, the minimum for a dignified existence, ”replied the Picard deputy François Ruffin. Or even the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure who told him, still on Twitter, that he “will have to come down to earth”.