A legal battle over the right to strike is looming in France after a top union boss said he would go to the courts to stop the government from forcing oil refinery employees back to work.
On Wednesday, the French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced the government was prepared to order staff at depots run by Exxon's Esso France unit back to work, with similar measures possible at TotalEnergies sites, if wage talks between bosses and unions fail to deliver a solution.
But after workers at both companies renewed their strike call, Philippe Martinez, the head of the powerful CGT union, said: "France is challenging the right to strike. We will go in summary proceedings to support the employees requisitioned."
And he threatened wider industrial action.
"We will call on employees of other professions to go on strike," Martinez added. "The question of wages is unavoidable, it must be resolved."
On Wednesday night, President Emmanuel Macron called for a rapid settlement of the dispute.
"I want the leaders of these companies and the employees to be responsible," Macron said during an interview on France 2 public television..
"We cannot let the country be blocked because a few people want the industrial action to go even further."
Bosses at TotalEnergies said on Sunday they would bring forward annual pay talks with unions if they dropped a blockade of fuel depots and refineries that has led to a shortage of petrol supplies across France.
But with no signs of progress on the horizon, Borne acted.
Four employees were requisitioned on the site of ExxonMobil at Port-Jerome-Gravenchon in northern France, which supplies the Paris region.
Two were told on Wednesday and another two will be forced to work on Thursday.
