The paper said the utility will make proposals, mainly focused on the number of hours worked, at a meeting on February 5. The reform would affect 30,000 people, or about 42 percent of EDF SA's 71,000 staff in France, it added. Worldwide, EDF employs 158,467 people, according to its website.

An EDF spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment.

France's national auditor said in a September 2013 report that EDF's staff should boost productivity by working more hours and being more flexible.

EDF's labour regulations are a "complex mosaic of local agreements" with different rules for different workers, a lack of control over the number of hours worked and "exorbitant" overtime arrangements, the Cour des Comptes audit body said.

EDF staff also pay only about 6 percent of what the general public is charged for electricity.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq, editing by William Hardy)