Group companies have also collaborated with public authorities and specialised service providers to launch health awareness campaigns, for example, to promote the importance of exercise and a healthy diet in preventing multiple chronic diseases. Other initiatives include individual counselling with a dietician and screening for diabetes and heart disease. Additionally, awareness campaigns have been carried out in various regions worldwide to focus on certain addictions (smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc.) and diseases (such as cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s). Each one aims to inform employees and get them involved, while creating opportunities for team-building and mutual support through challenges and group activities. Companies are also renewing equipment and tools as well as reorganising work conditions to reduce workers’ exposure to the risks of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). For example, employees have been trained to help their colleagues adjust their practices and to lead warm-up exercises before starting work.
A special ergonomics group has been created within the Group’s community of health and safety specialists to promote good posture and proper body mechanics for performing work activities across all business lines. Innovations such as the exoskeletons developed at VINCI Construction or the equipment to facilitate manual baggage handling at VINCI Airports are helping to reduce physical effort and strain for employees.
Temporary employment agencies and subcontractors are involved in prevention targets, in particular the zero accident objective. This policy is applied in the form of specific clauses in contracts, in particular framework agreements that bind the Group to its partners over the long term, and in the physical conditions at operating sites and worksites where VINCI companies oversee operations. Prevention rules are set out for these sites and applied in the same way for all individuals working there (employees, temporary staff and subcontractors). Where applicable, Group entities help the subcontractors and temporary employment agencies they work with to improve their own performance. This assistance is mainly provided at the site under operation or at the worksite.
Despite these actions, personnel along the value chain of external companies have a higher accident rate. To address the issue, additional measures have been taken to improve worker safety. These may go as far as terminating any form of collaboration if the external providers do not adhere to certain fundamental rules.
In 2022, VINCI repeated its consultation process, applicable within France, to select temporary employment agencies (TEAs) approved to work with Group companies. To be listed, TEAs must meet specific health and safety standards, comply with safety equipment indicators and issuance requirements, and ensure, if necessary, that their workers hold a special safety passport, known as the Pasi, introduced by the construction sector in France. It is obtained after successfully completing a two-day certification course. Increasingly required on worksites, the Pasi will be a prerequisite for all temporary workers on each assignment by the end of 2024.
An innovative new financial incentive has been introduced to encourage TEAs to improve their safety practices. This increases agencies’ involvement in safety efforts as part of their collaboration with VINCI companies.
For subcontractors in particular, the following actions have also been taken and are being developed:
VINCI companies that operate infrastructure also implement prevention policies aimed at customers and users. For example, the VINCI Autoroutes Foundation for Responsible Driving conducts studies and raises large-scale public awareness about the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol or when affected by inattention due to drowsiness, fatigue or distraction. The related initiatives are presented in paragraph 2.1.4, “Relations with external stakeholders and procedures for dialogue with them (including customers, users and local residents)”, page 213.
VINCI has made progress across all safety performance indicators over the past 12 years. Workplace accident frequency rates reached a low in 2020, the year of the health crisis, and have since remained unchanged or in some cases increased slightly. This relative stability has been recorded against the backdrop of a strong business recovery and the required reorganisation of production teams.
The severity rate has remained relatively low for the past three years. Potentially serious incidents and fatal accidents are monitored separately at the highest level of the Group in collaboration with the European Works Council (see paragraph 4.2.7, “Monitoring the effectiveness of measures put in place”, of the Group’s duty of vigilance plan, pages 261 to 262).
Worldwide, the workplace accident frequency rate for temporary workers came to 13.03 in 2022 (excluding Cobra IS). The gap between the workplace accident frequency rates of VINCI employees and temporary staff reflects differences in the jobs performed, in safety awareness, and in technical know-how and experience. As mentioned above, the safety of temporary workers employed by Group entities is a priority, with a firm commitment to reduce the number of accidents among this category of workers.
VINCI has begun implementing a system to measure occupational safety performance for subcontractors across its entire value chain, which will be used in addition to the indicators already in place for its employees and temporary workers.
