Created in 1946, at the time of the nationalization of companies in the sector, this status allows Olivier Guerin, 55, to plan to retire within two years after a career started at 18, given the hardship.
With the reform, the deadline could move away for this agent, "pure product of Enedis" and son of a GDF agent.
As far back as he can remember, status and its benefits, like the agent rate, "has always been in the hot seat," he says. "I made my first demonstration on the shoulders of my father, I must have been five years old".
"From the start, this status was attacked. It suffered permanent attacks, in particular from politicians who found it too generous", confirms to AFP Stéphane Sirot, historian specializing in trade unions and author of the book "Electriciens et gaziers in France; a social history, XNUMXth-XNUMXst centuries" (Editions Arbre bleu).
In the line of fire in particular, this famous "agent tariff", which makes it possible to pay approximately 10% of the energy bill of an individual. Among the other advantages, an efficient system of health coverage and social work helping employees.
The statute has also contributed to shaping a strong "common identity" in the branch, which is very useful when it is necessary to mobilize agents after a storm. This promotes trade union action.
These advantages make it possible to attract and build loyalty in the profession, which also has its constraints, says Stéphane Chérigié, national secretary of the CFE-Energie: "When we recruit a young executive, we tell him + you may be a little bit paid less than elsewhere, but you have the agent rate, you have social activities, the pension plan+, it's a bit like that that makes your eyes shine".
Then, on the other hand, the career path is "moderate and very smooth", in other words less enviable than "in other large private companies", he says.
Marked by 35 years of on-call system, Olivier Guerin feels "crushed" physically, between hours on his knees in front of electrical boxes and physically demanding interventions at the top of the pylons, at any time of the day and night.
“A tree that has fallen on the line, a vehicle that has come into it. In five minutes, you are asked to be reactive and to move to leave for the intervention”, explains Olivier Guerin.
"Energy Panade"
These constraints are at the origin of the statute, according to Stéphane Chérigié: "when after the war, we nationalized the electricity and gas industries, we really had to put the package on these industries, because there was a need to rebuild electrical networks, so that we can run the industry, etc..."
The government reform puts an end to the special energy pension scheme, but officially does not affect the status.
Nevertheless: this "will lead to the destruction of the status of the IEG (electrical and gas industries) as a whole then", predicts Amélie Henri, national secretary CFE-Unsa energies for EDF, the second union in the sector.
"In five to ten years, with this reform, it's the end. They know that they will break our statute, our works council, and our particular tariff, it's a game of dominoes", denounces also Frédéric Ben, CGT Storengy delegate.
Sylvain Badinier, of the CFDT Chemistry-Energy, forecasts the same cascade: "after four or five years, quite quickly, there will be a significant part of the employees who will no longer be in the IEG pension scheme, so this foreshadows the negotiation of a new collective agreement, as at the SNCF".
For historian Stéphane Sirot, the status of IEGs is also likely to suffer from the growing proportion of qualified engineers and technicians in the large companies in the sector. The tasks formerly devolved to the workers are outsourced to non-statutory companies.
“Today, given the energy crisis in which we find ourselves, it would not be uninteresting to safeguard the public service of electricity and gas”, concludes Stéphane Chérigié.