The former general secretary of the CGT, Bernard Thibault, has co-chaired, since 2018, the Social charter monitoring committeesigned by the unions, employers, and communities involved in the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) of Paris 2024. He sits on the Games Organizing Committee and on the board of directors of Solideo, the public establishment responsible for built infrastructure.
Solideo announced that 84% of the JOP projects should be completed by December 31. What assessment do you make of this first phase of production?
The unions are rather satisfied with the cooperation with Solideo on the management of the sites since they were able to go there regularly, be an alert force, and our messages taken into account. Solideo had set two priorities: safety, in a construction sector which has one death per working day, and the fight against illegal work.
According to the latest count, there have been 464 accidents including twenty-five serious accidents. It’s too much. But if we relate it to the number of hours worked, this represents four times fewer accidents than on other construction sites in France.
Solideo brought a simple message to construction majors: you are responsible for the safety of all personnel working within your scope, including subcontractors and temporary workers. This is not common practice.
Labor inspectors were also much more present. On average, an inspector visited one of the construction sites every day. This experience should be used to rethink safety on construction sites and to reduce an excessively high mortality rate.
We have still seen undocumented workers occupying certain construction sites.
Illegal work is a significant factor in accidents. We acted together to put an end to the undocumented work situations that we became aware of, by obtaining regularizations. In the current debate, this is not negligible.
There were objectives regarding integration. Will this translate into post-Games jobs?
Ten percent of the hours worked had to be reserved for a public far from employment. To date, 3,644 people have been able to have an employment contract of 714 hours on average. Half of them are people who have been unemployed for more than a year and half are residents of Seine-Saint-Denis. We will have to measure the number of people in integration who can, if they wish, stay in the building for a long time. It’s too early to assess it.
You have 65% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.