Gap between wages and profits. The EPSU thinks the economic crisis is only a pretext for wage cuts since losses in the energy sectors cannot be measured yet. The union drew a report showing the gap between wages and profits in the sector. In gas and energy, 300,000 jobs were cut over 10 years, partly because of liberalization the EPSU thinks. Yet, since 2001-02, profits increased of 40% for the German RWE, 300% for the Austrian Verbund, while EDF’s income was multiplied by 10 between 2002 and 2007. On the contrary, about one third of wages was cut in the sector’s ten largest businesses, except for Iberdrola in Spain. Finally, the committee pointed out that the disproportion between wage cuts and increased dividends was particularly high at EDF: dividends went from €208 to €3,170 million between 2003 and 2007 while wages went from 2,5000 to 200%. In other businesses, while figures are less spectacular, they reveal the same trend: at RWE, it went from 984 to 185%; from 400% to 63% at Verbund; and from 684% to 143% at the German EON.
in the energy sectors cannot be measured yet. The union drew a report showing the gap between wages and profits in the sector. In gas and energy, 300,000 jobs were cut over 10 years, partly because of liberalization the EPSU thinks.
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