Registered in the Labor Code, this right to alert is provided for when the social and economic committees have "knowledge of facts likely to affect the economic situation of the company in a worrying way", recalls the CSE of EDF, which intends thus asserting its "concerns" and being able to "officially ask questions of the group's management concerning the impacts of these measures".

“Depending on the responses” from management on February 4, the date on which this meeting is to take place, “the committee can confirm its right to alert and order an expertise”, he underlines in a press release.

On January 13, in the midst of soaring energy prices and in a context of high inflation, the government announced that it was going to force EDF to sell more electricity at low prices to its competitors to protect purchasing power. the French.

EDF will thus sell at a reduced price up to 40% of its electricity production in 2022, instead of selling at the full market price, and lose around 8 billion on its 2022 gross operating surplus, according to the group.

In an internal message to EDF executives, CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy himself strongly criticized these government measures, describing "a real shock", while the four trade union organizations representing the group called for a day of strike on January 26.

"In the current context of soaring electricity prices, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and the Minister of Ecology Barbara Pompili propose to put EDF in a financial abyss, for the benefit of the sacrosanct competition" , believes the committee, which denounces a "framed extortion of its production for the benefit of its competitors".

"If, as he declared yesterday, EDF is indeed + at the service of the general interest +, the minister is at the service of his private competitors and of the European Commission. We denounce this imposture which consists in claiming to save the purchasing power of the French, while destroying their public heritage", declares the secretary of the CSES Philippe Page Le Mérour (CGT).

Questioned on Wednesday by several elected members of the Senate on this file, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire judged "normal that a public company like EDF participates in the support of the French, households and businesses when electricity prices soar. ".

© 2022 AFP