PARIS (Reuters) – EDF management has estimated production losses at one billion euros linked to strikes against pension reform in France since the beginning of March, particularly in nuclear power plants, and has therefore suspended its plan to hiring for 2023, we learned from two union sources.
A spokesperson for the group confirmed “a moratorium” on recruitment but did not comment further.
The Ministry of the Economy did not wish to comment on this information.
According to sources interviewed by Reuters, who had separate discussions with two EDF executives at the end of last week, the company has asked all of its division heads to review their plans to determine priority hiring and those which could be postponed to 2024.
One of these sources specified that the company originally planned 3,000 to 3,500 recruitments in France this year, in particular in the nuclear industry and trade.
The same source added that the strikes against the government’s plan to reform pensions, which affect not only production but also the maintenance of the plants, risked causing delays of 18 to 24 months in the schedules of reactor shutdowns and therefore jeopardize EDF’s nuclear production target for 2023.
EDF’s new CEO, Luc Rémont, estimated at the end of February that the group was in the process of recovery after recording a historic net loss of 17.9 billion euros in 2022, due to low availability of the nuclear fleet. French and government measures to limit the rise in electricity prices.
EDF, in the process of complete renationalisation, is faced with significant recruitment needs to cope with the work necessary for the extension of the French nuclear fleet and Emmanuel Macron’s project to build at least six new “EPR2” type reactors “.
(Reporting Benjamin Mallet, with Leigh Thomas; editing by Kate Entringer)
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