Veolia Water is the only water services company in the world to have been invited to sign, on Sunday June 29 in Seoul, South Korea, the international Declaration that recognizes health and safety at work as a basic human right.
Veolia Water Signs Declaration on Health and Safety at Work
The declaration was adopted during a high-level summit on health and safety prior to the XVIII World Congress On Safety And Health At Work. Beyond being an international political consensus, the "Seoul Declaration" will attract the attention of the public and the media. According to the estimates established by the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 2 million people die every year because of work-related accidents and diseases.
Official recognition
Antoine Frérot, Veolia Water CEO, signs the declaration in Seoul.
This signature represents official recognition of the quality of the performance of Veolia Water regarding health and safety at work.
Veolia Water signed the declaration following eight years of applying the ILO guidelines, which are the basis for Veolia Water's commitments to protect the wellbeing and health of its 82,000 employees. It is also recognition from the Safe Work Department of the ILO, a tripartite organization of authorities representing the public sector, employers and employees.
Veolia Water's program for health and safety
Veolia Water has a comprehensive, integrated and innovative health & safety program based on risk assessment. The other elements of this program are the management system; the analysis of incidents and accidents; raising awareness of responsibility among clients, subcontractors and suppliers; training; and the establishment of a network of Health & Safety professionals around the world.
Achieving real results
Real results have been achieved because the frequency of accidents at work has been significantly reduced (a decrease of 56% between 2003 and 2007).
Veolia Water intends to continue making progress and aims to reduce accident frequency by at least 10% by the end of 2008.
The program sets specific targets based on the needs of different geographic areas:
- Gabon: since 2005 all of the employees of Société d'Energie et d'Eau du Gabon (SEEG), along with their families (total of 15,000 people), have had the benefit of a free screening test for AIDS (8.1% of the population of Gabon is HIV-positive)
- France: in 2007 the health and safety management system of Veolia Water's "Région Sud" obtained the world's first ever ILO certification (ILO-OSH2001) for water and wastewater activities.
- United Kingdom: in 2006 our Three Valleys Water subsidiary put in place a "Wellbeing" program for its personnel. This took the form of information campaigns ("Drink more water," "Keep fit at work," "Stay healthy in the summer sun"), as well as physical activity tests and relaxation and stress reduction methods.
Regarding accident prevention and health & safety, Veolia Water looks to achieve excellence, knowing that good performance in these areas is a sign of good performance for our company.