Economy. Total ordered to pay a bonus based on a tweet from its CEO

Promises are not only binding on those who believe in them. This was confirmed by the judicial court of Créteil, as reported our colleagues from Les Échos.

To understand the case, we must go back to the end of 2018. In full movement of yellow vests, Emmanuel Macron announces that companies will have the possibility of granting a bonus exempt from social contributions and income tax to their employees. The next day, Patrick Pouyanné followed in the footsteps of the President of the Republic and announced that an exceptional bonus of 1,500 euros would be paid to “all” employees at the start of the following year.

The following year, the employees of SASCA, a 60% subsidiary of Total, received only 400 euros. The company’s CGT union then decided to take the case to court, to the good memory of Mr. Pouyanné’s tweet.

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Sentenced to pay 1,100 euros

On November 6, 2020, the Créteil court ruled in favor of the employees. According to Les Échos, Total did not appeal. The judgment condemns the parent company to pay the 200 SASCA employees an additional 1,100 euros to achieve the CEO’s promise.

The CEO’s tweet was considered “insufficient to characterize the group’s unilateral commitment to the benefit of SASCA employees” in the absence of additional details. “However, the complainants added to their appeal a document bearing the logo of the French oil company but not those of SASCA, which specified that “given the national context, all employees of Total and its subsidiaries in France would benefit from an exceptional bonus of 1,500 euros”.

This judgment tends to give particular value to messages posted on social networks. Sentences have already been handed down for employees denigrating their employer.

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