As France returns from the Christmas break the month-long strikes look set to get even more disruptive

The standoff between the French government and trades unions over pension reforms reaches a critical point this week with talks due to resume amid calls for further walkouts and mass protests.

As the country returns to work on Monday after a two-week holiday, union leaders have called for a show of strength from workers in the public and private sectors and a blockade of refineries, threatening fuel shortages.

Talks between the two sides are due to restart on Tuesday after a month of industrial action that has brought transport chaos to Paris and elsewhere in the country. Unions have called for nationwide protests on Thursday and Saturday.

Yesterday police fired teargas at demonstrators in Paris’s busy Gare du Nord station, used by tourists taking the Eurostar service, at the Gare de l’Est and in the Bastille area during demonstrations in which several bins were set alight.

In his new year address, President Emmanuel Macron said he would not back down on pension reform but urged his government to find a “rapid compromise” to the crisis. Union leaders, however, have accused the government, led by Édouard Philippe, the prime minister, of deliberately dragging its heels.

“There’s no reason to stop the mobilisation,” Yves Veyrier, the general secretary of the Force Ouvrière Union, told the AFP news agency. “The priority is widening it as much as possible on Monday.”

The hardline CGT union has called for a complete blockade of oil refineries from Tuesday to Friday, which would lead to shortages at petrol stations and bring the country to a standstill. The government has said such action would be illegal.

Workers at the state-owned SNCF railways and the Paris transport network, the RATP, began their industrial action on 5 December, and have been joined by teachers, hospital staff and other public sector workers. Last Friday, the collective SOS Retraites – “SOS Pensions” – said it would be joining the protests; its 700,000 members cover a range of self-employed workers in the private sector, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, airline staff and accountants.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emmanuel Macron says he will not back down. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

Air France’s second largest pilots’ union has also called on its members to join the strikes. The airline’s main pilots’ union has called off industrial action after “reassurances” from ministers that members will retain the right to retire with full pensions at 60.

In a joint statement, the union leaders behind the strikes accused the government of not wanting to find a solution. “Faced with this unprecedented social movement, the government is playing at dragging things out, with certain ministers stigmatising the sectors that refuse to negotiate regressions in their rights,” it read.

“The situation is far from calm. During his address, the president of the republic confirmed that he’s not listening and simply repeated the same things that have failed to convince anyone over the last two years.”

Eric Beynel, a spokesman for the Solidaires union, said nobody had much hope for the talks and accused the government of “playing for time”. Philippe Martinez, the general secretary of the CGT, has called on all French workers to join the strikes. “We have to sound the alarm even louder,” he said last week.

Macron made reforming France’s complex pension system an election pledge in 2017; this involves merging 42 individual systems into one universal points-based system. The government insists this will be fairer and hopes to encourage people to remain in employment beyond the official retirement age of 62 to 64. Unions, particularly those in the public sector whose members enjoy historical privileges, including early retirement on full pensions, accuse the government of eroding their rights.

Negotiations between ministers and union representatives are likely to continue until 22 January, when the reform will be presented to the council of ministers before being introduced to parliament. The talks will focus on the thorny question of pénibilité, or compensating those whose jobs involve particular hardship.

Sunday is the 32nd day of the strikes that have disrupted rail, Metro and bus services in Paris and elsewhere. The previous longest SNCF strike over wages and working conditions lasted for 28 days in 1986-87.

An opinion poll published in Le Figaro yesterday found respondents had a low opinion of everyone involved in the crisis. About 68% did not think well of Macron and Philippe but almost as many thought equally badly of the CGT (63%) and striking rail workers (68%). Opposition parties were unpopular with 75% of those polled. Support for the strikes remained relatively high at 61%.