VINCI Concessions has published a safety handbook that describes the five pillars of its safety culture. These mainly focus on understanding and integrating the Group’s requirements; ensuring manager training, involvement and evaluation; carrying out in-depth analyses of risks and accidents and sharing and communicating the results; and spreading the safety culture in every country by engaging employees, their representatives and outside companies. Each VINCI Concessions company is responsible for applying the guidelines and developing an action plan tailored to its situation. Subcontractors participating in the construction and operating phases are included in the health and safety management system.
VINCI Energies strives to embed health and safety into the everyday practices of each individual and to build workplace communities that facilitate this. Its health and safety framework has six pillars, which are communicated and discussed in particular during Safety Week. The pillars are the common areas on which all companies must collectively focus for a stronger culture: exemplary leadership, transparency, sharing of lessons learned, commitment, risk awareness and understanding of procedures. VINCI Energies also considers the organisational and human factors affecting these six pillars. To make safety an integral part of the management culture, it empowers managers to implement local initiatives.
VINCI Construction’s safety culture is supported by three pillars: transparency, exemplary conduct and dialogue. A focus on health and safety permeates the body of rules, indicators and tools shared by all VINCI Construction business units, called “The Way We Work”. Ten health and safety rules establish and maintain a strong safety culture. One of these rules is to apply a core methodological approach to managing risks at each of a project’s key stages. It begins with the incorporation of safety concerns into work instructions and procedures early on, at the design stage. During the work execution phase, the works manager holds a pre-start briefing with the site team prior to starting a new job, to ensure that everyone has fully understood the work that has to be done and the safety measures that need to be taken. Whenever a situation is unclear or a change is made that could create a hazard, the rulebook also encourages participants to stop and alert their supervisor. To prevent major risks, most VINCI Construction entities have established golden rules, to be followed by all workers, as well as business-specific guidelines. A root cause analysis is systematically required after every serious accident and every near miss with a high potential risk. An annual highlight of the safety culture at VINCI Construction are its Safety Days, during which its more than 119,000 employees share their experience and focus together on an area of the health and safety policy needing improvement.
After observing a new increase in maintenance van collisions, VINCI Autoroutes stepped up its action plan to prevent these accidents. The business line first overhauled the training of personnel working on motorways. Next, it collaborated with government agencies to update work procedures and implement technological solutions such as video surveillance and AI-based collision avoidance systems. It also ran large-scale communications campaigns, using media such as travelling exhibits and videos, to raise public awareness of the problem.
Stop card systems are in place in the Energy and Construction businesses. Stop cards empower every worker to stop a work process if they see a potential risk in its execution or simply a lack of planning before taking action. At Cobra IS, using a stop card in such a situation is considered to be a duty, not a choice.
Dialogue with employees and their representatives
In the policies implemented by business lines and divisions, the participation of employees and employee representatives is central to building a safety culture, as emphasised in the Group’s joint declaration. Consulting employees and keeping them informed are critical factors in their level of uptake and engagement across the organisation. Business lines and divisions regularly meet with employee representative bodies to present initiatives in progress and report on outcomes. As a result of this social dialogue, specific agreements have also been negotiated and entered into with trade unions.
In 2023, 12 health, safety and prevention agreements were signed by Group companies. Following recommendations made by the Group Works Council, VINCI companies in France are encouraged to set up a health, safety, and working conditions committee (CSSCT) if they have more than 50 employees, which is well below the legally required minimum threshold. Furthermore, in France, companies of any size are advised to hold a regular social and economic committee (CSE) meeting every month, and to check the organisation’s progress on prevention, health and safety indicators at every meeting. Outside of France, some divisions and companies have formed health and safety committees whose members include employee representatives, even if the law does not require it. VINCI looks to these committees to provide local insight and enhance risk prevention at its worksites and operating sites by suggesting areas for improvement, monitoring measures and assessing the need for any adjustments.
1,863
meetings of health, safety and working conditions committees across the Group in 2023
Various Group entities also offer training to employee representatives to boost their participation and help them carry out their duties regarding health, safety and working conditions. The training is delivered by VINCI’s health and safety specialists, by trade union representatives or by professional organisations such as the French Professional Agency for Risk Prevention in Building and Civil Engineering (OPPBTP).
Health and safety is a core component of all social dialogue between the Group and the Group Works Council or the European Works Council. As part of its continuous dialogue with Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), VINCI has joined the latter’s Global Alliance for Healthy and Safe Workplaces by signing a declaration in support of the recognition of occupational health and safety as a fundamental right by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
