20 April, 2009
The Consultation Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (CCSR) for the EDF Group of France met on 24-25 March in Paris to discuss and determine policy on the worrying situation facing employees of the mostly public electric utility and its subsidiaries throughout the world. The group determined that EDF is bound by its prior corporate social responsibility agreements to, at the very least, maintain the standard of living of its employers.
In this regard, due to the effects of the global financial meltdown, specifically on purchasing power of EDF employees, adjustments must be made to salaries merely that living standards remain consistent. The committee’s statement from Paris meeting was addressed to EDF Group Chairman Pierre Gadonneix, and other management officials, Mr. Lagarde and Mr. Caron.
The ICEM supports the statement of the group, and its demands, which were circulated by Marc Ferron, secretary of the CCSR and member of French union FCE-CFDT.
The statement calls for more attention on the workers at EDF subsidiaries in the developing world. Workers there have been hit hardest by the crisis. The CCSR requests EDF management to redistribute profits towards the increase of salaries to, at the very least, the level of inflation and the cost of living in the country concerned.
The EDF Corporate Responsibility Agreement was originally signed on 24 January 2005 by Pierre Gadonneix, EDF's President and by the assembled employee representatives from each country where the Group is present. Commitments in the Agreement included provisions for industrial restructuring within the group. Current restructuring within the group is taking place in Clover in Poland, and in UK’s energy industry. The enterprise Leibin in China will soon be restructured and job preservation throughout all restructuring projects is called for.