Major Risks

The Health & Safety Days 2022 put an emphasis on the 5 major risk areas which cause the most serious injuries and incidents. They are: Mechanical Lifting; Pedestrian-Vehicle Separation; Electricity/LOTO (Lock out, tag out); Stability of Structures/Equipment and Falls from Height. We also launched the Civil Works 13 Life Saving Rules which are the most important requirements to protect our frontline colleagues from serious harm. 

Aligned with the major risks, the Health &Safety Days also focused on 2 actions designed to support our efforts to prepare thoroughly and only start the day when we are ready. These are: 
-    Supervisor’s Pre-Start Inspections,
-    and Basics Compliance Assessments by Managers.

Jean-Yves Mondon, VSL international CEO: « I’m very pleased to report that we are improving. Year on year, we are having less and less injuries. However, we are not improving as fast as we would like to concerning the prevention of the most serious injuries where colleagues end up in hospital or are off work for long periods. We need to keep going with our efforts and focus more on the major risks, and challenging complacency.”

45 videos were made by VSL teams to share best practices from our frontline operations: more than 15,000 views already!

A highlight of the VSL Health & Safety days was the sharing of best practices: in total, 45 videos were submitted, covering various topics: Safety Leaders, Safety Commitment and Health & Safety. Concrete demonstrations of the efforts made on a daily basis by VSL teams around the world. 

Jean-Marie Laurens, Civil Works Business Line Manager: “The videos are an excellent demonstration of what we are already doing to prevent injuries, and of our enthusiasm for always doing better”.

The videos have been shared around the VSL world with over 15,000 views so far and 1,500 likes. The VSL Health&Safety Board will make a selection of the videos to highlight which best illustrate the main topics. The quality of all the videos was excellent and they will all be useful in different contexts.

https://youtu.be/6DLFkEdz3mo

New Vigilance application version: see, say, secure

Another highlight of the Health & Safety days was the presentation of the updated version of our Vigilance App. Version 2 includes several new functions. The most useful is the ability to add photos and text to close reports. Developed by VSL International, this App is offered to all Group entities. It is available on the App Store and Google Play.

First launched in 2019, the App has been used to make over 100,000 reports of hazards and good practices, helping the entire team at VSL to better prevent injuries and health problems, but also lead by example. 
 

Mark Divers, VSL Heath & Safety Director: “It’s important to take time, regularly, to reflect on how we are performing and what is causing injuries/illness. Part of this is being able to talk openly with trust and respect so that we can really make our sites safer and better. The H&S Day help us to keep building Health & Safety into our operations and culture.”

In 2021, 236 accidents occurred on the various VSL construction sites; but thanks to the constant effort of the teams, this figure has been reduced to 174 in 2022 up to end of October (12% decrease), whilst this year has also seen a big jump in our activity levels back to pre-covid levels.

Jean-Yves Mondon, VSL international CEO: « Despite a very challenging period, we have continued to make our sites safer, meaning less injuries. I’m very pleased that our planning and preparation is getting better and better as this is key to good safety performance.».