EDF’s IPO and the application of international accounting standards required the valuation and provisioning of commitments to retired employees. The maintaining of the industry’s special welfare plans faced with this requirement was supported by the overhaul of their financing: affiliation with standard mandatory plans for pensions and strengthening of affiliation between current and retired employee plans for complementary health insurance cover.
The special pension plan has, like other public sector special pension plans, been increasingly affected by efforts to reform mandatory pension plans launched by successive governments. Except for the pension calculation method (specific rate, applied to a salary at the end of career, with a reduced base), the main parameters (retirement age, required contribution period, etc.) tend to be in line with the standard compulsory plan. The definition of active service, enabling earlier retirements, has been revised and the way it is taken into account has been significantly overhauled for newly-hired employees, via the creation of a Retirement Days Savings Account.
The Covid crisis has caused postponement of the projected pension reform. A new reform project, arising from consultations in late 2022, has been presented by the Government to restore equilibrium to the pensions system’s financial trajectory, with its measures scheduled to enter into force in late summer 2023. This project will include the following:
Whatever form it takes, a reform of pensions entails several challenges for the EDF group:
The level of employee health, disability and life cover appeared to need updating to meet that offered by other major groups, which led to a complementary cover in these three areas, in the form of an agreement at branch level.
An agreement on family rights was signed in 2017 at the level of the EGI branch with the trade union organisations, to modernise the social system.
In terms of health insurance, an in-depth consultation between the social partners of the EGIs and the government was carried out concerning a rebalancing of the accounts of CAMIEG (1), which have carried a surplus since its creation in 2007.
The rebalancing is specifically based on a reduction in employer and employee complementary health insurance contributions, a reduction in the solidarity
contribution paid by the working population for the non-working population and an improvement in optical benefits. These provisions have opened the way to a broader rethinking of how to monitor CAMIEG’s balance of accounts and how to potentially increase responsiveness in order to recalibrate rates to the observed reality of financial balances.
In practice, employees from the EGIs could benefit from these measures which had a positive financial impact on their pay in 2022: the rate of employee complementary health insurance contributions is 25% less than in 2020 and, from 2023 onwards, this rate reduction will remain 5% less than the 2020 rate of employee contributions. Furthermore, the solidarity contribution paid by the working population for the non-working population has been permanently reduced by 17%, compared to 2020.
Lastly, as regards disability and death benefit, a strengthening of the system for supporting carers entered into force as from 1 April 2022. Financial assistance to employees on family solidarity leave and on parental attendance leave will be improved and will also be made open to employees on caregiver leave.
Thus, for several years, the strengthening of the financial steering of health, disablement and death schemes is a major goal, fostering closer tying of contributions with benefits, and responsibility is shared between employers and trade union organisations.
The Group’s other employees in France are covered by several collective bargaining agreements and can have fringe benefits provided by their own employer. Each employer must ensure that the benefits provided are consistent with the Group policy. For Group companies outside France, even if the regulatory context specific to each country must be taken into account, each entity is required to ensure that the capital paid out in the event of a death under death benefit contracts covers one year’s salary at the very least.
In addition to its long-standing commitment to the safe use of electricity (2), the EDF group is also committed to consumer health. In the upstream branch of its activity, it has a positive impact on air quality because of its low-carbon production method. Downstream, with regard to the uses of electricity and its applications, it authorises the development of best practices in terms of mobility, cold chains, and home comfort.
The EDF group’s policy covers a wide range of activities for promoting consumer health (3).
For several years now, environmental issues have been linked to health issues out of a sense of limiting risk, anticipating future risks such as the health impacts of climate change, and promoting innovative services.
In order to detect emerging issues as early as possible, a meeting is held every quarter with all the environmental health correspondents of all the Company’s departments. EDF is also a member of the French non-profit Entreprises pour l’environnement (EpE – Enterprises for the Environment), formed to analyse and anticipate environmental regulations, and share best practices.
A study conducted by the Service des études médicales (SEM – Medical Studies Service) in collaboration with the University of Warwick (England) showed that energy renovation of heat sink buildings would generate savings for the public health system. This EDF study was adopted by the French Ministry for Ecological Transition (MTE), in a document published in 2022 on quantifying the economic evaluation of the benefits to health associated with energy renovation of housing (4).
(1) CAMIEG Caisse d’assurance maladie des industries électriques et gazières (health insurance fund for the electricity and gas industries).
(2) Various schemes have been set up in all relevant Group structures in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, etc. For example, EDF systematically sends a safety instruction booklet to all customers who take out a natural gas subscription. These instructions can be accessed on the edf.fr website. Enedis also develops partnerships with organisations representing the main high-risk groups to raise awareness of the risks of fishing near power lines, or to boost cooperation in the prevention of risks relating to firefighting work near power grids. Overseas, EDF in the UK informs its customers of the potential dangers of electricity in newsletters or on the back of bills. EDF in the UK also has a toll- free number to inform its customers about safety practices. Specific action is taken regarding the most vulnerable customers to promote their health, particularly during the winter period.
(3) Health is understood here within the WHO meaning as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
