The risk generally intensifies when an activity depends on a high volume of low-skilled workers or where labour migration flows are significant. Although VINCI promotes local sourcing of labour, Group companies may recruit migrant workers to meet their business needs in certain regions, mainly due to local labour shortages. Once workers migrate for work, they become dependent on their employer not only for their employment but also with regard to their living conditions and accommodation. They are more vulnerable than other workers and face a greater risk of exploitation. This risk is amplified if they do not speak the language of the host country, are unfamiliar with cultural norms or have a limited understanding of their rights.
For many years, VINCI has been developing and adapting approaches and operational tools to combat forced labour. To achieve this goal, VINCI works with its internal stakeholders as well as a range of other collaborators offering complementary expertise. In addition to bolstering internal practices and policies, VINCI also seeks to improve the industry’s practices as a whole by sharing its experience and engaging with many different stakeholders to address systemic risk.
VINCI’s approach builds on the initiatives and measures taken at Qatari Diar VINCI Construction (QDVC) since 2007 and the public-private partnership with the ILO Project Office in Qatar from 2018 to 2021, which sought to create a migration corridor between Qatar and Bangladesh, with no recruitment fees for workers.(1) Other significant collaborations include QDVC’s participation in a study on ethical recruitment run by New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Based on quantitative and qualitative information provided by QDVC and interviews with workers, managers, recruitment and placement agencies and subcontractors, the report acknowledged the effectiveness of the due diligence measures in place and considered that “QDVC’s standard represents the most responsible recruitment practice that currently exists in the industry”.(2) At end-2025, QDVC had completed all the infrastructure projects for which it had been mandated and the company now employs fewer than 80 people and 40 subcontracted workers, who are mainly carrying out finishing work, performing maintenance and correcting defects. Information on the QDVC’s activities, which were of an exceptional scale, and the risk prevention and mitigation measures taken in Qatar is available on the Group’s website (www.vinci.com/en/newsroom/dossiers/vinci-qatar). Previous publications of the Group’s duty of vigilance plan also provide many details on the initiatives taken in Qatar.
In order to provide its teams with operational guidance, the Group first identified a wide range of concrete risks related to forced labour: the risk of recruitment fees and debt, the risk of employment contract substitution, and the risk of confiscation of workers’ work permits, identity documents, visas and passports. Guidelines were then developed to address each of these areas, as well as issues relating to working conditions (wages, working hours, etc.), accommodation and value chain practices.
The Group continuously develops training courses to help operational teams detect and prevent forced labour risks, especially using practical case studies. In 2024 and 2025, VINCI’s Social Responsibility Department facilitated or co-facilitated several skills workshops in the Gulf region and in South-East Asia. These courses and workshops aim to strengthen the ability of operational teams to prevent risks throughout the recruitment process, including the selection phase, contract drafting, and audits of subcontractors and recruitment agencies. Local stakeholders – companies, international organisations and non-profits – took part in the workshops, ensuring the content reflects the realities of the ecosystem.
The course promoted the use of tools such as the Fair Recruitment Toolkit for Employers & Service Providers, an operational toolkit for the responsible recruitment of migrant workers. VINCI contributed significantly to this publication, which drew largely on the pilot project conducted by QDVC and VINCI in collaboration with the ILO. The open-access toolkit was published in September 2023(3) and applies the ILO’s fair recruitment principles, the IOM’s guidelines, the Dhaka Principles and best practices developed internally by the working group’s member companies. It contains tools to be used throughout the recruitment process, providing operational guidance on selecting a recruitment agency, implementing a no-fee recruitment policy, conducting checks, interviewing workers and building an effective complaint system.
After publishing the toolkit and launching the skills workshops in 2024, VINCI and the WBCSD co-developed an e-learning module in 2025 to allow a wider audience to access training on using the toolkit. The module was also added to the Group’s Up! e-learning platform at the end of 2025.
In 2025, VINCI also conducted reviews of the recruitment processes in place at two of its subsidiaries, including some subcontractors, in the Gulf region and in South-East Asia. For this, it interviewed more than 100 workers of different nationalities, encompassing both direct employees and subcontractors’ employees. Additional interviews and verifications were carried out for approximately ten representatives of subcontractors or recruitment agencies. An action learning process was thus initiated and the progress made at subsidiaries will be monitored.
VINCI collaborates with other construction companies, mainly as part of the Building Responsibly initiative, whose principles include fighting against forced labour and promoting responsible recruitment practices. Since the initiative’s launch in 2017, VINCI has made a significant contribution to drafting the policy brief on recruitment and has also published a case study on QDVC’s recruitment practices in Qatar.(4) In 2024, the Group held a series of fair recruitment webinars throughout the year to share tools, methods and existing projects with members. Many leading voices in the area of responsible recruitment, such as Verité, Impactt, the Fair Recruitment Initiative, Brac, Asia Philanthropy Circle and the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, presented their work and solutions at these webinars. Recruitment agencies having audited and transformed their processes to uphold responsible recruitment principles also contributed their experiences. The main aims of these webinars were to promote the spread of existing solutions to enable each member to recruit responsibly and, over the longer term, drive ideas for initiatives to be implemented using a collective, sector-wide approach in certain geographical regions. At the members’ seminar in November 2024, a working group focused on this sector-wide approach, and in 2025, coordinated by BSR in its secretarial role, began drafting a concept note defining a collective pilot project. This work is still in progress.
VINCI understands that working with its peers is important, but so is raising awareness and training the next generation of engineers.
