While for nearly two-thirds of the French population (64%) companies have tended to reduce their investment in health and safety during the recession (exclusive Ipsos survey, October 2013), Bouygues Entreprises France-Europe has made safety on its construction sites its absolute priority. On November 6, the company is once again organising its annual European Health and Safety Day, with work interrupted simultaneously on 608 construction sites in France, Switzerland and Spain. 10,000 employees and subcontractors along with customers are invited to take part in interactive workshops that take a fresh look at the rules and behaviours required for interdependent safety, for oneself and one's colleagues. This uncompromising health and safety policy has made it possible to divide the number of occupational accidents by four in six years, and to achieve a frequency rate of 3, the lowest accident rate in the construction industry today. 

Philippe Bonnave, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Bouygues Construction, said: "We want to achieve our target of zero accidents rapidly. This means being more demanding and it means spreading a safety culture shared by everyone. Today, almost three-quarters of those in work (73%) state that they feel responsible for the health and safety of their colleagues (Ipsos). The 2013 campaign, ‘Your safety is also my safety', specifically aims to encourage in each individual a sense of responsibility for others. If we can deliver ‘zero accident' buildings sites, it is good for everyone. This is a strong aspect of our attractiveness at a time when our customers are attaching more and more importance to safety criteria in the tendering process." 

The 2013 European Health and Safety Day is intended to highlight the fact that everyone is responsible for the safety of their colleagues. According to the DuPont Bradley Curve, an individual's behaviour when facing risk passes through four phases: safety through natural instincts, safety through rules and regulations, safety for oneself and interdependent safety. In order to advance, people must progress from using simple survival instincts as a method for avoiding accidents to being capable of analysing their own and their colleagues' work stations, in a 360° process. Bouygues Entreprises France-Europe has therefore set a new target for moving from a regulatory response to ensuring that such strong values as emulation and zero tolerance are adopted by everyone. 

A large-scale operation is being put in place to raise participants' awareness of the need for an approach that is both individual and collective: 

•    a poster campaign to arouse interest,

•    plenary sessions with educational videos and testimonials endorsed by members of the Minorange guild, 

•    interactive safety workshops in small groups held on construction sites, 

•    multiple-choice questions designed to allow participants to measure the la progress of their knowledge. 

Introduced by Bouygues Entreprises France-Europe in 2007 with "Safety, my vital combat", the European Health and Safety Day has been held every other year since. It symbolises the unwavering commitment to the accident prevention policy which is part of day-to-day life on construction sites. In 2008, a systematic routine of 10 minutes of warm-up exercises at the start of every shift was introduced. In 2012, a road-show called Ergotour was set up, touring the company's jobsites and providing interactive workshops for site teams intended to present new ergonomic equipment and to train workers to adopt better postures to avoid muscular injuries. 

This health and safety policy promoting the respect and development of employees is one of the four key areas of the Bouygues Construction sustainable development strategy, which is designed to meet its ambition of "shaping a better life". 

The complete results of the Ipsos survey are available on request.