Safety criteria is increasingly cascaded to subcontractors during the consultation phase as standard practice. Contractual clauses were shared throughout the Group to help introduce stricter safety requirements. The clauses create an obligation to report noncompliance with fundamental safety rules and take certain measures, not only in situations where subcontractors work alongside other companies, but also in their own operations. Failure to do so can give rise to contract termination.
Reporting and analysis of accidents and potentially serious incidents
VINCI’s business activities expose employees and other workers at its worksites and operating sites to risks with potentially serious consequences. All Group companies must have a system in place to report accidents and potentially serious incidents. Every accident must be recorded and analysed; appropriate action must be taken and monitored. If a serious accident occurs, an investigation into the root causes is carried out. Organisational factors, such as procedures and equipment, and human factors are examined using proven tools and methodologies. Health and safety specialists and managers alike regularly receive specific training on how to effectively investigate incidents. The results of the investigations are reported and discussed at every management level, from the company to the division or business line, in the presence of health and safety directors. Depending on the results, changes may be made to work procedures, materials and equipment, which are then communicated to all employees and people working at the site, using dedicated online and on site resources, as well as during in person meetings so that staff can dialogue and interact.
Business lines and divisions develop their own accident reporting tools and applications to facilitate the sharing and spread of best practices within their organisation, especially in relation to how accidents, near misses and potentially serious incidents are analysed with respect to major risks. The health and safety departments of business lines and divisions consolidate reported information according to precise rules, enabling them to detect and analyse trends. This insight informs actions to prevent a serious accident from happening in similar circumstances. These tools are regularly fine-tuned, to enhance experience sharing when recurring risks are observed at several entities, to develop action plans at the right level of the organisation, to step up efforts and campaigns to prevent a specific risk, and to reassess, as needed, risks identified as major. For example, VINCI Concessions rolled out an application for sharing analyses of accidents or near misses in a fact sheet format that any entity can view, enabling companies to learn from the similar experiences of others. Emphasis is placed on potentially serious incidents.
Monitoring and alert procedure for fatal accidents
Every fatal accident is immediately notified to VINCI’s Executive Management and thoroughly and methodically investigated. All the involved parties participate in an in-depth analysis and a full report is made to VINCI’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, to the relevant members of the Executive Committee and to VINCI’s Vice-President for Human Resources. The report includes a detailed description of the circumstances of the accident, an explanation and analysis of the causes and a presentation of the corrective actions put in place. Its purpose is to ensure that all necessary steps have been taken and shared throughout the Group to improve existing prevention measures and prevent another accident from occurring in similar circumstances. The Bureau members of the European Works Council are also informed and involved. They receive quarterly updates on accidents, regardless of the country where they occurred. This procedure applies systematically, whether the victim is a Group employee, a temporary worker, an employee of a subcontractor, joint contractor or leasing company, or a third party.
Assessments shared with the Group’s executive leadership
The management committees of the Group’s business lines and divisions are kept informed of reports of serious accidents and potentially serious incidents. More generally, health and safety performance is measured and tracked using relevant indicators, which are presented to the management committees of business lines and divisions, to enable improvement actions to be discussed and leadership engagement to be renewed. At VINCI Autoroutes, the management committee examines key indicators every two weeks. Furthermore, management reviews are held annually to analyse results obtained and set new goals for the future. At VINCI Concessions, the safety policy is championed by a Safety Committee, which meets twice a year and is chaired by the CEO. At these meetings, the committee assesses the results to date and progress made on action plans. At VINCI Construction, every meeting of managers opens with a safety update; likewise, its Executive Committee reviews significant events at the start of every meeting and examines results twice a month. At VINCI Energies, prevention and the safety culture form an integral part of the Executive Committee’s responsibilities. The Executive Committee and the management committees review detailed analyses of major accidents and other potentially serious incidents to learn from them and prevent such incidents from happening again.
Presentations are also made to the Board of Directors’ Strategy and CSR Committee, Remuneration Committee, and Appointments and Corporate Governance Committee, in order to evaluate managers’ performance, and to the entire Board of Directors.
The close monitoring carried out by the Group and its business lines and divisions may trigger the commissioning of a third-party audit, especially in the event of the decline of a key performance indicator.
