Electricians and gas workers across France went on strike on Tuesday, September 15, to defend a preferential energy tariff for sector employees that the government is considering scaling back. Unions called the tariff a "non-negotiable" part of workers' pay and warned they expected a historic turnout.
The benefit, known as the "tarif agent," sharply reduces electricity and gas bills for employees of France's energy sector. It is a longstanding feature of the status of electricians and gas workers and covers around 140,000 employees, along with nearly 160,000 retirees from companies descended from the former state operators EDF and GDF, including Engie, Enedis and GRDF, as well as other firms such as local energy distributors.
The government is weighing changes to the tariff through a ministerial order. According to the Energy Ministry, it received a formal notice from the Cour des Comptes, France's public spending watchdog, ordering it to bring the gap between the discounted tariff and the real value of energy into compliance.
What the audit found
In a report published in mid-July, the Cour des Comptes said the preferential tariff cost the EDF group more than 700 million euros in 2024 alone, calling it a "disproportionate cost" for EDF SA, the group's parent company. EDF is France's state-controlled electricity utility.
The same report found that beneficiaries now pay less than 2% of the average electricity and gas tariffs charged to ordinary consumers. That figure is disputed by some union officials, who put the discounted rate closer to 10% of what households pay on average.
Fabrice Coudour, general secretary of the FNME-CGT, the leading union in the sector, told the AFP news agency that the tariff was "really a totem" for workers and that keeping it was non-negotiable, noting that the pay scale for the electricity and gas industries starts below France's minimum wage, the Smic.
Dominique Santoni, federal delegate for the sector at the CFDT union, said the unions wanted the plan currently under consideration to be abandoned entirely. She stressed that the tariff represents part of employees' remuneration, not a gift handed to them by employers.
Unions expect a historic turnout
The joint union front calling for the walkout includes the CGT, CFE-CGC, CFDT and FO. Some employees moved ahead of the formal strike call at the Flamanville nuclear power plant in the Manche region, where reactor No. 2 saw reduced output from Friday and maintenance work on reactor No. 1 was delayed.
Alexandre Grillat, general secretary of the CFE Energies union, recalled that when the tariff was previously threatened in spring 2011, 86% of workers at electricity and gas companies joined the strike. He said unions were again aiming for a historic participation rate, though he noted the sector's workforce has since changed, with more managerial staff now employed.
Sandrine Tellier, general secretary of FO-Energie, said she had received no reports from union activists of any reluctance among employees to join the movement.
Government response and next steps
The Energy Ministry told AFP it was working to respond to the Cour des Comptes' order within a reasonable timeframe and intended to consult employee representatives once technical work on the changes was finished. The joint union front said it was frustrated by what it called the government's "radio silence" on the issue and wanted to act before any decision was made.
The centerpiece of Tuesday's action was a rally outside Bercy, the Paris district that houses France's Finance Ministry, where a union delegation planned to request a meeting with officials.
Unions said the strike itself was not expected to have any immediate visible impact on energy users. But Grillat warned that if the government did not heed the message sent on September 15, anger among workers would grow stronger and would be expressed through other means.
He also pointed to the wider context facing Europe's energy supply, noting that the war in the Middle East has made it critical to fill gas storage facilities ahead of winter, and said it was not the moment for a strike affecting those facilities.
