In Versailles, the Labor Inspectorate interrupted a construction site for the Paris Olympics – Libération

2024-04-23 20:14:55

The newspaper “L’Equipe” revealed this Tuesday, April 23, that the construction site on the Versailles Olympic site was interrupted by the Labor Inspectorate in March. The latter considered that safety conditions for workers were not guaranteed.

After the employment of undocumented workers, a new scandal for the Paris 2024 construction sites. The newspaper L’Equipe reveals this Tuesday, April 23 that the Labor Inspectorate demanded on March 8 the immediate cessation of work on the construction site of the Olympic site of Versailles, dedicated to equestrian events. That day, inspectors visiting the site would have raised the alarm about the working conditions of workers dedicated to the construction of iron stands with 16,300 seats and 23 meters high. Some of the workers would have been “positioned on boards which were not attached to the structure, and they were therefore likely to slip, tip over or fall on the other employees located below”, they would have reported. When others were “working on assembling the unhooked part”, about 20 meters high.

A danger that the company GL Events, the company carrying out the work, denies. The company, responsible according to the Team for the construction of two thirds of the 200,000 temporary stands for the Olympic Games, maintains that there is no “serious and imminent danger” for its 200 workers on the site, at stronger activity. Before the Versailles administrative court, in April it demanded the resumption of the site, highlighting a “risk of late penalties”. According to her, the suspension of work could compromise “the holding of sporting events linked to the Olympic Games”, the horse riding events starting on July 27.

Serious and imminent danger of falling

In an order issued in summary proceedings on April 11, the Versailles court rejected these arguments. He noted a “situation of serious and imminent danger of employees falling from a height” and specified that “the emergency condition relating to the resumption of the construction site […] [n’était] not fulfilled in this case. The court finally clarified that, since a refusal to restart construction issued on March 14, “no request for resumption on the basis of a revised operating procedure has been presented by the company”.

Despite everything, to L’Equipe, GL Events puts things into perspective by estimating that all of the work would not have been stopped. According to her, only certain tasks would have been postponed. Now, the company assures that its workers have resumed work on the site, launched on February 5.