Four employees of RTE, the manager of the electricity transmission network in France, are in custody since Tuesday in the premises of the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI), it was learned Wednesday from a source close to the case, for having disconnected the “telecontrol” of electrical stations during a strike.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office has confirmed that four men aged between 31 and 35, employees of RTE, have been taken into custody as part of an investigation by its cybercrime section.
The investigation was opened on July 29 for obstruction of a data processing system, computer sabotage, fraudulent access and maintenance in an automated data processing system, as well as for introduction, modification and deletion of data from such a system, the prosecutor’s office said.
The fact that the employees are being heard on the premises of the DGSI is explained by the status of RTE, an operator of vital importance for the functioning of the country.
RTE had filed a complaint this summer following damage that would have led to power outages, said the source close to the case, specifying that the alleged facts were common law.
In a note to employees consulted Wednesday by AFP, the management of RTE does not mention any degradation but, three times in June and July, a “loss of telecontrol”, that is to say that electrical stations have been made unavailable to be seen and operated remotely, for example to be put out of power, which has “put at significant risk the safety of the electrical system.
According to Fabrice Casanova, CGT central trade union delegate for RTE, “the passage in local of the remote controls of the stations is a symbolic action to say: I take the levers”, and which does not have an impact on the functioning of the electric network if the apparatuses are not operated locally, as it was the case according to him.
After an internal investigation, RTE initiated disciplinary proceedings against these four employees, who were suspended. In the morning, the CGT issued a statement to denounce “services
anti-terrorist measures used to silence the agents’ wage demands”.
“These are ordinary employees, four maintenance technicians from the northern region,” insisted Francis Casanova, according to whom, for a “symbolic action,” they “find themselves in police custody for 96 hours like the worst of the terrorists for nothing!” “It’s a crazy thing!” he exclaimed.
Mr. Casanova sees “a desire to repress the social movement”, recalling that there have been actions for several months at RTE for wage increases, without the strikers getting their way.
A rally at the initiative of the CGT is scheduled for Thursday at 2:00 p.m. in front of the RTE headquarters in the La Défense district, in the Paris suburbs.
