Occupational safety applies to everyone

The fundamental role of local management

The commitment of each site and business director is a fundamental.

• He or she develops a local occupational safety policy that is consistent with the group’s policy and defines a clear and specific occupational safety organization. 
• He/she ensures that all risks are identified and that everyone in the entity is involved in managing occupational safety. 
• He/she is responsible for ensuring that hazardous situations are under control at all times, for risk reduction, and for continuous improvement in occupational safety performance.
• He/she makes use of tools such as visual management, which is based on the visibility of standards and good practices, participatory safety inspections, the study and analysis of the root causes of deviations and accidents, and the sharing of lessons learned.

A bias towards partnership with subcontractors

Occupational safety is also a criterion in subcontractor selection. AREVA wants its contractors to share its performance improvement objectives and asks them to contribute actively to achieving a high level of facility safety and employee health and safety.

Getting the best procurement terms is a key consideration for the group's economic performance, but this is not sought at the expense of personnel safety. An internal directive specifies mandatory occupational safety requirements for the group’s decision-makers and principals (buyers, project managers, site directors, business directors, etc.) and for its contractors, and provides them with the necessary management and decision-making tools.

Real partnerships can be achieved by defining shared objectives. For instance, a number of AREVA entities and their contractors signed a joint Occupational Safety Charter in January 2009 for the Georges Besse II construction project.

This is a strong statement by all partners – plant owner, prime contractor, operator and subcontractors – that is setting the example for others, as evidenced by the occupational safety charters now being signed for other major industrial projects.