These major categories of risks to human health and safety are presented in the table below.
| Major risk categories | Types of potentially major event |
|---|---|
| Risks relating to moving objects | Risks relating to moving objects Types of potentially major event Collision with moving equipment or materials |
| Major risk categories Collision with worksite machines or vehicles |
|
| Risks relating to falling objects or loads | Risks relating to falling objects or loads Types of potentially major event Blows from falling objects or materials |
| Major risk categories Blows from the collapse of a structure |
|
| Major risk categories Crushing from the fall of a suspended load |
|
| Risks relating to working at height | Risks relating to working at height Types of potentially major event Falling from heights |
| Risks relating to energised or pressure equipment | Risks relating to energised or pressure equipment Types of potentially major event Projection of high-pressure fluids |
| Major risk categories Projection of pressure machinery parts |
|
| Risks relating to handheld mechanical tools | Risks relating to handheld mechanical tools Types of potentially major event Cuts and punctures from sharp handheld mechanical tools |
| Risks relating to road traffic | Risks relating to road traffic Types of potentially major event Road accidents |
| Risks on the road during safety, maintenance or construction activities | Risks on the road during safety, maintenance or construction activities Types of potentially major event Collision with third-party vehicles |
| Electrical risk | Electrical risk Types of potentially major event Electrocution |
Preventing and responding to psychosocial risks has been an important focus since the Covid-19 pandemic. At many VINCI sites, measures were introduced at the outset to raise awareness, provide training to managers and support employees. The range of initiatives undertaken include setting up help hotlines, offering psychological counselling, training employees to recognise signs of depression and situations of distress, and organising events dealing with mental health and stress management. At VINCI Construction, for example, an increasing number of initiatives are being taken, in tandem with human resources teams, to support employees’ mental health.
Group companies have also collaborated with public authorities and specialist service providers to launch health 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. The main fixed sites and production sites have been equipped with a large number of defibrillators.
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 and involve employees, 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 to promote good posture and proper body mechanics for performing work activities across all business lines. Innovations such as the exoskeletons being tested at VINCI Construction or the equipment to facilitate manual baggage handling at VINCI Airports are helping to reduce physical effort and strain for employees.
In response to identified risks, business lines and divisions develop their own risk prevention policies. They establish a set of guidelines to be applied by all operations in their scope. As a result, each entity applies guidelines from multiple sources – the Group, the business line, the division and the entity itself. These rules strengthen and complement one another, producing a response that is tailored to the on-the-ground realities of each sector, activity or operational context. They form the framework that determines the preventive actions to be incorporated into operating procedures, work instructions and the organisation of work. All business lines apply special scrutiny to major risks. These guidelines and the resulting actions taken are part of a continuous improvement effort and are regularly reviewed, especially in response to health and safety audit results, employee surveys and feedback and analysis of accidents and near misses.
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 everynear 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 117,000 employees share their experience and focus together on an area of the health and safety policy needing improvement.
