Bernard Thibault: “For the 2024 Games, our objective is to demonstrate that major events are not incompatible with high social rights”

The former general secretary of the CGT, Bernard Thibault, has co-chaired, since 2018, the Monitoring Committee of the social charter, signed by the trade 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.

The unions are rather satisfied with the cooperation with Solideo on the management of the sites since they were able to go there regularly, act as 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 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 a 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 reduce an excessively high mortality rate.

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.

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 a work contract lasting 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.