The OPPBTP joins forces with the Pôle Habitat FFB to improve prevention on single-family house construction sites

Aware that the prevention of occupational risks constitutes a lever for the overall performance of companies, the partners are now continuing at the level of each region the work initiated at the national level, thanks to agreements intended to put in place concrete actions.

Risk prevention, a multiple issue for builders of individual houses

With 173.565 starts in 2019, the construction of single-family homes alone represents 42% of new housing construction sites.

Indisputable progress in the prevention of industrial accidents and the improvement of working conditions has been made in recent decades on construction sites, leading to a significant drop in claims. However, the severity index of industrial accidents on construction sites for single-family houses remains higher than that of the construction industry (43,2 per 1.000, against 34 per 1.000). This is explained in particular by the nature of their operations, the typology of the companies involved, often small, as well as the management of co-activity on these sites where the client is often a private individual.

However, the involvement of builders of individual houses in an approach to prevent occupational risks makes it possible to favorably improve working conditions on construction sites, to fight effectively against accidents and occupational diseases and, consequently, to increase the overall performance of these operations for the benefit of each of the operators involved. The implementation of such an approach also makes it possible to reinforce a positive image of the know-how of the builders of individual houses, whether vis-à-vis their customers, their subcontractors or their employees.

A pragmatic guide to serve as a national base in prevention for the entire profession

In accordance with these observations, the builders of individual houses belonging to the Pôle Habitat FFB, the Cnam and the OPPBTP, supported by the FFB and the Federation of SCOP BTP, have developed a Guide to good practices in occupational risk prevention dedicated to the construction of single-family homes. This provides practical insight and simple advice to prioritize the risk of falls, hygiene issues, musculoskeletal disorders and coactivity.

Developed within the specific framework of the particular client who builds for his personal use in relation to a builder of individual houses, it represents a solid common basis of good practices in order to help builders of individual houses and their subcontractors. to progress in prevention while meeting their obligations in terms of risk prevention.

Thus, the guide details the different phases of a single-family house construction operation, reviews the mission of the SPS coordination and the supporting documents that are useful to it and gives examples of operational solutions that are easy to implement on sites. .

Continue the deployment of actions as close as possible to the territories thanks to regional partnership agreements

While the Guide has just been published, the mobilization of partners is continuing thanks to an action plan in the regions. Indeed, the Pôle Habitat FFB, the OPPBTP, the FFB, the Federation of SCOP BTP and the Cnam now encourage their respective networks to come together to appropriate and deploy good practices in a concrete way on the sites.

To do this, the partners will in the coming weeks put in place operational agreements signed, led and piloted by their local representations and committing them to defining an action plan adapted to the ambitions, resources and level of maturity of each of them. question of prevention.

Each action plan will be structured around three common objectives:

• Implement good practices by promoting the engagement of builders of single-family homes and their subcontractors. This first requires wide distribution of the guide, both to the 1.040 members of Pôle Habitat FFB and to the largest number of builders of single-family homes, companies and construction workers involved in these operations, as well as by the implementation of local actions to present the prevention topics addressed in this guide
• Develop the prevention culture of all the actors in an operation of
  construction of detached houses. The partners will be able to set up various training, information and advice actions to improve practices relating to risk assessment and develop a positive approach to prevention within construction operations.
• Measure the prevention contributions of the actions carried out, with each target or
  on each topic treated. Site visits may be organized in order to assess the benefits obtained by the implementation of the practices, using a diagnostic tool designed specifically for this purpose.

The Guide to good practices in the prevention of occupational risks dedicated to the construction of individual houses is available here.