Total CEO: TOTAL will not cut jobs and will need workers when the price goes up

Patrick Pouyanne the CEO of French oil and gas giant TOTAL said recently in a radio interview that the company would not cut jobs as other oil and gas companies have done, despite an expected drop in TOTAL’s 2015 results. Pouyanne declared that Total would not treat employment as an “adjustment variable” during the downturn in oil prices, and that the company will need its workers “when the price goes up.”

After major oil companies announcements that they would cut additional thousand jobs in 2016, TOTAL chief Patrick Pouyanne told Europe 1 radio that Total’s earnings were supported by its transformation, refining and distribution activities. “We’re present all along the chain,” he said. “But at the same time our profits are falling and it is expected to be down a bit more than 20 percent in the year 2015 because of the oil price collapse.” Pouyanne’s remarks were based on results for the first nine months of 2015, but that the full-year results were headed for a similar drop, as predicted by analysts.

Patrick Pouyanne said that all of the company’s job cuts have come from allowing workers to retire without recruiting new employees to fill their positions according to Reuters. He added that over the course of the last year, Total cut its hiring while bringing in about 700 new employees, versus the 1,200 that had been planned.

Pouyanne declared that Total would not treat employment as an “adjustment variable” during the downturn in oil prices, and that the company will need its workers “when the price goes up.”

Worthy to mention that TOTAL expects 2015 profits to slow down by more than 20 percent from a year earlier because of falling oil prices. Total announced in September 2015 that the company would reduce 2016 spending down to $20 billion from the $24 billion spent in 2015. One year ago, the company’s chief financial officer said Total would seek $4 billion in cost cuts to adapt the crash in oil prices. That would mean 2,000 job cuts by 2017.

Some analysts expects TOTAL to invest around $20 billion this year, and $17 billion in 2017, against $23 billion to $24 billion in 2015.