The EDF group definitively found guilty of moral harassment towards an executive at the Chooz nuclear power plant

The EDF group was definitively found guilty of moral harassment against a former executive, who had been automatically retired and contested it, after the rejection of the public energy company’s appeal by the Court of Cassation, we learned this Monday. The company said it does not comment on court decisions.

The group turned to the highest French court to challenge a ruling of the Reims Court of Appeal in November 2024, in a dispute opposing it to Arnaud Begin, a former executive at the Chooz power plant (Ardennes) hired in 1998.

The Reims Court of Appeal had condemned EDF for moral harassment against its former employee, who felt he had been harassed, sidelined and finally automatically retired.

EDF ordered to pay him 250,000 euros

The former employee had cited a series of pressures and job changes characterizing this harassment, which according to him continued until his automatic retirement in March 2024. For its part, EDF had alleged the faults and inadequacies of its employee.

In its judgment of May 20, consulted Monday by AFP, the Court of Cassation indicates that “the means” invoked by EDF to contest the conviction of moral harassment was “clearly not likely to lead to cassation”. EDF was ordered to pay 3,000 euros to Arnaud Begin in procedural costs.

The company contested in particular the reliability of the medical certificates presented by the ex-employee and considered that the court of appeal did not sufficiently establish the facts of moral harassment in its decision.

In January, the Paris industrial tribunal ordered the company to pay 250,000 euros in compensation to this former executive, ruling that his automatic retirement, equivalent to “serious misconduct”, was “unfounded”. It was reclassified as “null dismissal”.

According to Arnaud Begin, EDF appealed this latest decision, contesting “certain elements of assessment retained” by the judges.

This former nuclear safety inspector of the company believes that the harassment of which he was the victim was the consequence of safety reports that he had carried out concerning the nuclear power plants of Dampierre (Loiret) in 2017 and Tricastin (Drôme) in 2015 and 2018.

“EDF regularly states that it wants to be an exemplary company”, particularly in terms of the fight against moral harassment, reacted Arnaud Begin in a message to AFP, where he considers it “important for the public to know that French justice has recognized, in (its) case, acts of moral harassment which have lasted since 2018”.