At EQUANS, health and safety is one of our three "must-have", along with ethics and cyber security.
Fabrice Leoni is Health and Safety Manager for EQUANS. He answers our questions, based on his observations.
What does this World Day for Health and Safety at Work mean to you?
"At EQUANS, we are all committed and mobilised on this priority theme, and well beyond this World Day for Safety and Health at Work, it is a daily concern for everyone. This is an opportunity to remind everyone that we have made great efforts to reach a level that places us among the best in the countries where we operate. But nothing can be taken for granted on this subject, we must consolidate our strengths and work on our weaknesses.
I am convinced that we must share a positive vision of our results. Many countries have indeed achieved remarkable results and we need to build on them. I often say that we need to feed off the positive. We have to be able to explain our successes, analyse them and learn from them: what are the key points for an activity, an agency, a management, a country to achieve zero serious accidents in a sustainable way? But every serious accident and every event with a high potential for seriousness must also be systematically analysed.
We will be particularly vigilant with regard to electrical risks, the subject of this world day relayed by EQUANS, and to the fact that it is necessary to pay particular attention to safety equipment (insulating mats, gloves, face shields, etc.) but also to the LOTO (consignment procedure) where the absence of voltage must be systematically checked with a detector before any intervention. In addition, the field of health remains a vast undertaking that EQUANS will have to carry out from the point of view of the reduction of arduousness at work and the promotion of quality of life at work by aiming for the best practices. The aim is to offer the best health conditions throughout the career.”
What strategy do you recommend to improve the Health and Safety of our colleagues in the coming years?
"As I said earlier, many countries have outstanding practices. If you put them together, they are a great lever for progress for EQUANS. So we need to work on better sharing, so that the best practices of each country become EQUANS standards. This is our first area of progress.
We have been working for a long time on serious hazards and imminent risks. We are going to continue to make progress together on these subjects because techniques are evolving, new employees regularly join the company, the level of safety is a factor of recognition and attractiveness, and clients expect ever higher and guaranteed levels of professionalism.
The second area will be health, which we must continue to work on. We are going to work on these risks and deferred dangers, those which day after day, year after year have an impact on our physical and mental health, and which depend on our working environment: posture at work, noise, isolation, arduousness and psychological discomfort.
Safety is a fundamental value at EQUANS and health is a fundamental right that we must preserve. We all have a responsibility and an ability to act equally for the health and safety of our employees. We need to observe, listen, be close to our employees and be sympathetic. Let us not forget that after the period of acute crisis in Covid, we need to rediscover the team spirit and fight against social isolation. A healthy and secure future is ours to build.
