A government plan to reduce fatal work accidents

Some 540.000 people were victims of work accidents in 2020, including 550 fatalities, excluding road accidents, the Ministry of Labor said in a press release.

This figure has not fallen since 2010. "The human, social and economic cost of accidents at work requires us not to give in to fate", argues the Secretary of State for Occupational Health, Laurent Pietraszewski, who presented this roadmap before the national committee for prevention and occupational health (CNPST), as part of the "4th occupational health plan 2021-2025".

This plan first targets the most vulnerable employees (young and new hires, temporary, self-employed or seconded workers) by emphasizing safety training, particularly during their initial training for young people or when taking From post. The prevention messages intended for them, in particular for posted workers who speak French poorly, will be reinforced.

According to Health Insurance, nearly 15% of serious and fatal accidents occur during the first three months after hiring and a quarter of work accidents concern employees with less than one year of seniority in the company. .

Another priority target are VSEs-SMEs which often have fewer resources to devote to prevention.

According to the labor inspectorate, serious and fatal accidents in VSEs-SMEs represent 26% of total accidents even though they employ only 18% of employees.

Certain occupational risks will be the subject of targeted measures because of their high impact, such as road risk (356 fatal accidents according to the Cnam), the risk associated with the use of machinery (24% of fatal accidents) and falls from height (18% of fatal work accidents).

The plan focuses above all on prevention, information and communication campaigns.

“It is not enough to accumulate regulations, there is a dimension of very strong appropriation of the land”, estimates one in the entourage of the secretary of State.

“It is not mainly a budgetary question, but a question of information within the community which does not know enough + the epidemiology + of fatal accidents”, we add.