The electrician EDF will contract, but making “arbitrations”, a spokesman said on Wednesday, lifting the moratorium announced just days before.
“This moratorium has allowed us to have feedback from the different directions to be able to make arbitrations,” said a spokesperson for the group, without revealing the quantified scale or the trades in question.
“The process (of hiring freeze) was intended to take stock of the situation to make arbitrations and establish priorities,” he added, specifying that these arbitrations will take place “in the coming days.”
Manpower Need
This “moratorium” had been decided internally at the HR department level and the approach was not initially intended to leak through the media.
When questioned, EDF had confirmed, however, that it was suspending its hiring while it identified its priorities when the company was going through “a difficult situation,” this spokesperson explained on April 13.
The company, in the process of nationalization, faces many industrial and financial challenges that involve more hiring and not the other way around.
EDF must restore the production of the existing nuclear fleet, extend its life as much as possible and prepare for the construction of at least six reactors, according to the priorities set by the government. This will be labor intensive as France has not built any power plants for 21 years.
10,000 people for 10 years
On Friday, the Gifen (group of French nuclear energy industrialists) must present to the Government its report on the sector’s skills needs to start up what is presented as the largest nuclear project since the Messmer Plan in 1974.
According to estimates, the sector will have to hire up to 10,000 people per year during the decade.
The electrician closed the year 2022 with a record loss of 17.9 billion euros, attributing part of his woes to the Arenh mechanism (Regulated Access to Historical Nuclear Electricity) and his production difficulties in the nuclear industry due to corrosion problems.
Source: BFM TV
