Unions and employers have committed to a charter so that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are “socially and economically responsible”. A work deemed “very satisfactory” by Dominique Carlac’h who underlined, Wednesday, that there have “never been so few accidents on construction sites”.
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The organizers of Paris 2024 explain that they want to make the Olympic and Paralympic Games a “economically, socially and environmentally responsible event”. To achieve these objectives, trade union and employer organizations have committed to a social charter signed on June 19, 2018: the Paris 2024 Social Charter. Its committee meets on Thursday April 25 at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), in Paris.
The idea with this charter was “to innovate by proposing a charter that commits us socially and economically. Economically, make SMEs work so that the economic benefits benefit SMEs and VSEs. And socially, commit to work organization practices, monitoring of construction sites which are responsible”explain Dominique Carlac’h, co-president of the Social Charter Committee and member of the Medef executive board, this Wednesday April 24.
Dominique Carlac’h also specifies that all the practical information so that businesses can organize themselves during the Olympic Games (QR codes, opening hours, crossing points, etc.) will be available at the beginning of May on an official website. Medef will also launch a dedicated site with “really practical questions”to help companies organize themselves (teleworking, staggered hours, etc.).
franceinfo: Are you satisfied with the results of the Paris 2024 Social Charter?
Dominique Carlac’h : It’s really very satisfying. It was signed in 2018 by the five unions and the three employers’ organizations. And we have never seen so few work accidents on construction sites. There were some nonetheless. But you know that for major international sporting events that take place all around the planet, often the indicator, unfortunately, is the number of deaths we have on construction sites. On the Paris 2024 construction sites, not a single death or a single serious accident. Unfortunately, it happened, but only one serious accident despite all the work. We have never had so few accidents on construction sites.
Do you think these are the effects of the charter ?
These are the effects of the charter. It is not binding because it does not have the force of law. Nevertheless, we have met every month for eight years.
“Every month, the eight employers’ and union organizations met to discuss how we manage these sites, what we set up as a site visit with the companies, with the agreement of the companies, with the agreement of the union.”
Dominique Carlac’hon franceinfo
But we ultimately had an interest in innovating in this, in being able to export this concept of economically and socially responsible Games.
Do you have today all the information necessary for business leaders to work in the best conditions during the Olympic Games? Do you know how QR codes will work, who will be able to circulate and when?
Yes, because there is still a fairly extensive dialogue with the public authorities, with the police headquarters, with the state services, the various ministries concerned. Simply, now we will have to disseminate this information. There are zones, transport, all that is perfectly clear. At the beginning of May, there will be an official site and Medef will also launch a dedicated site.
“Medef will have a site dedicated to the Olympics, so that a business manager will know how things will go for the continuation of his activity, taking into account the area where he is, the opening hours, the crossing points , the deliveries…”
Dominique Carlac’hon franceinfo
Really practical questions. How does he get his employees to work? The opening ceremony takes place on July 26, and in early May we will have the information. We will have three months to organize and anticipate.
Today is April 24. When I talk to you about the beginning of May, it is in a few days that all the information will be accessible to companies which will go to the Medef sites or the sites of public authorities. I really insist on the level of anticipation, everything is possible. We are not going to be up against the wall like during the Covid crisis or overnight, we had to organize and we managed to organize. There, we will have three months to organize ourselves, to ask questions about a shift during holidays, about staggered hours, teleworking… All this very practical and very easy to implement information will be available at the beginning of May .
Are you one of those who hope that there will be an Olympic truce at the time of the Olympics and that there will be no strike?
This is the whole spirit of the social charter, originally: it is to say if we make economically and socially responsible games, normally, through this social dialogue, through this involvement of the social partners, we manage to demining, we can talk. We manage to discuss to say to ourselves at a given moment “We have a meeting with the nation, we are going to be a country that will be closely watched”. We must not forget that there will be two billion viewers watching France at that time. We will want to send a positive image of our country. So everything is done so that we can project a positive image and dialogue with each of the stakeholders.
And this dialogue involves the organization of working hours, the implementation of teleworking, and bonuses?
Bonuses have been discussed and work arrangements are discussed in private companies. Where it needs to be arranged, discussed, even homogenized, is in the public service, because there are different professions that are concerned, depending on whether you are in security, in the hospital world or in customs, you do not have the same supervisory ministry. So, there will be a certain expectation of harmonization on the part of employees.