French government orders workers to ensure fuel supplies

A petrol station worker and a police officer set up a ribbon as they close a petrol station (AP)

The French government has started the process of requisitioning workers at Esso petrol depots in an attempt to ensure that service stations around the country are supplied with fuel amid an ongoing strike, saying shortages are becoming “unbearable”.

France’s Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne asked prefects to launch the procedure “to requisition workers who are indispensable to the functioning” of the Esso petrol depots and is expected to make a similar decision soon regarding Total facilities if salary negotiations do not start quickly.