Subcontractor health and safety
Given the characteristics of its activities, ensuring the health and safety of workers at operating sites and worksites controlled by Group companies, whatever their status, is the priority. That is why the objective to achieve zero accidents, set out in the VINCI Manifesto, applies to all people – employees, temporary workers or subcontractor staff – working on the Group’s construction or operating sites. Similarly, the joint declaration entitled “Essential and Fundamental Actions Concerning Occupational Health and Safety” is also aimed at external companies and includes provisions for them to receive support if needed.
The established procedures at a construction or operating site make no distinction between employees of Group companies, temporary workers and subcontractor staff. Health and safety requirements are stated in advance, included in specific contract clauses and verified by Group companies. They range from wearing suitable personal protective equipment to reporting accidents or any other relevant information regarding on-site hazards. Specific criteria may be applied as of the selection phase and lead to a subcontractor being disqualified. Health and safety teams analyse accidents, especially serious or potentially serious accidents, and use their findings to update action plans and create a safer environment for outside workers. All staff are included in the safety audits conducted at sites.
As a general rule, workers employed by subcontractors not only attend the health and safety events held by the Group and take part in on-site training, but also participate in discussion workshops on improving prevention at construction and operating sites. The indicators for divisions and companies increasingly incorporate subcontractors. Efforts to improve prevention go beyond verifying compliance. The Group also takes steps to help its subcontractors raise their safety standards and implement more effective actions, especially in countries where the safety culture is not as strong.
For more information about the Group’s health and safety approach, see section 2, “Duty of vigilance with regard to health and safety”, of chapter F, “Duty of vigilance plan”, page 280.
Metrics
Monitoring the rollout of the responsible purchasing approach
Consolidated objectives and indicators were defined and approved by the Responsible Purchasing Committee for the Group and business lines on 17 December 2024 with a view to launching their consolidated reporting from early 2025. These indicators include the consolidated monitoring of the distribution of the all-round performance charter among purchasing partners, the deployment of responsible purchasing training and supplier assessments, as well as the audits and progress plans carried out with Group suppliers considered to be at risk. Alongside this work to harmonise the key indicators to be tracked, which is particularly ambitious due to VINCI’s decentralised organisation, each business line and division is tasked with monitoring its own indicators on a daily basis to ensure the effectiveness of the policies and actions put in place and assess the progress made.
Sustainability issues are addressed through ongoing interactions with the Group’s suppliers and covered in regular exchanges between purchasers from the business lines, divisions and operational entities and suppliers, subcontractors, service providers and temporary employment agencies.
A structured framework ensures that these exchanges systematically occur throughout the purchasing process, starting with supplier selection through calls for tenders and presentations, and continuing across the contractual relationship. This includes regular meetings several times a year to address sustainability issues, specific assessments and on-site audits, in addition to monitoring the implementation of progress plans.
In addition to these exchanges, which are part of the day-to-day activities of Group purchasers, who are increasingly aware of and trained on sustainability issues, a comprehensive support system can be put in place with the purchasing teams in the business lines organising sustainability awareness sessions for suppliers and their staff. For example, in line with this same focus on prioritising and adapting, the suppliers identified as the biggest contributors to VINCI Energies’ carbon footprint in France (Scope 3) have been provided with specific support in this area.
On an operational level, at the sites controlled by Group companies, the teams are directly in contact with workers from the subcontractors and service providers deployed on site. These workers therefore have direct access to the Group’s employees and the channels put in place to raise concerns. Depending on the situations, they may also take part in health and safety briefings and other initiatives. These close links between the teams and indirect workers on site enable their points of view to be effectively taken into consideration.
At Group level, VINCI also carries out a number of human rights assessments at its worksites, as well as responsible subcontracting audits and social audits of its suppliers at risk. In this context, each assessment and audit includes anonymous interviews with employees of subcontractors, service providers and suppliers. During these interviews, the assessors focus in particular on the most vulnerable categories of workers (e.g. foreign workers, low-skilled workers, migrant workers, etc.). The insights and perspectives shared by the workers interviewed are taken into account by the assessors in their findings. If issues are identified, the assessors follow up on the corrective actions taken to address them.
VINCI has implemented a whistleblowing reporting and processing procedure, VINCI Integrity. Any individual can use the platform to safely and anonymously report incidents or behaviour involving the Group, as well as its subcontractors and suppliers, anywhere in the world. Negative incidents can be reported through VINCI Integrity, which is open to all workers from across the value chain.
In addition to the whistleblowing system at Group level, VINCI’s decentralised and multi-local organisation and the nature of its activities leads the Group to encourage the implementation of local procedures for reporting concerns. The Group’s view is that whistleblowing systems are more effective when they are local, since the company, project or worksite is then better positioned to proactively handle reports, including those by temporary workers, indirect staff, end users or local residents, implement appropriate corrective and remediation measures, identify any weak areas in the organisation and reinforce its preventive measures.
