On July 11, Bouygues Travaux Publics, a Bouygues Construction subsidiary, organised a very wide-ranging operation to raise safety awareness. The company interrupted all its worksites to carry out an initiative on a scale unrivalled on an international level: the Global Health and Safety Day. The operation was very successful: approximately 8,000 people (employees and subcontractors) took part on more than 40 construction sites in 11 countries (among them France, Hong Kong, United States, South Korea, Morocco and South Africa). For Bouygues Travaux Publics, the purpose of this initiative is to implement the very highest international occupational safety and health standards in every country in which it operates.

Bouygues Travaux Publics is aiming to achieve "zero accidents" on all its worksites. On this occasion, the company's senior managers emphasised that occupational health and safety must be the absolute priority, above any other consideration. Since Bouygues Travaux Publics' first Global Health and Safety Day in 2011, the number of lost-time accidents has fallen by two-thirds. The frequency rate for lost-time accidents at Bouygues Travaux Publics is 3.12, one of the best in the industry*.

For the past two years, several significant initiatives have been taken: promotion of the duty to raise the alert and the right to review one's labour, the appointment of OSH specialists and supervisors on every worksite to help increase safety, and the introduction of safety-focused training for each level of management.

This proactive policy is being rolled out on every major project on which Bouygues Travaux Publics is working. On the site of the EPR nuclear reactor at Flamanville, for instance, more than 25 experienced and qualified OSH specialists and supervisors have been assigned to dealing with safety at the site. The resources devoted to safety have made it possible to achieve a frequency rate on this site that is 2.7 times below the national average for the sector.

In order to further increase worksite safety, Bouygues Travaux Publics has drawn up an action plan for the next two years, which is identical for all countries throughout the world. The plan is based on 5 major actions: training, preventing high-risk behaviour, taking "near misses" into account, the 5@11 system (all site work is halted at 11 am every day for 5 minutes enabling each individual to confirm the compliance of his team's workstation) and a stepping up of the health and ergonomics policy.

* The frequency rate of 3.12 includes all production personnel in France and other countries, excluding subcontractors