Management of external companies in France

External companies are regularly required to work on the premises of another company: delivery, cleaning services, maintenance or repair of equipment, etc. Co-activity or even the external company's lack of knowledge of the working environment generate significant risks.

All work or services carried out by one or more companies on the premises of a user company must give rise to prevention coordination ensured by the head of the user company with the aim of preventing risks linked to interference between the activities, installations and equipment of the different companies present on the same workplace.

A joint preliminary inspection must be carried out under the responsibility of the head of the user company, who must invite the heads of the external companies concerned by the upcoming intervention to the premises of the user company. Members of the Social and Economic Committee or the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee of each company may participate. This visit must in particular allow: to specify the work to be carried out, the equipment used and the operating procedures, to define the intervention sector to identify and prevent dangers for workers resulting from the planned intervention to communicate the safety instructions applicable in the company to indicate the traffic routes as well as access to hygiene premises (toilets, changing rooms, catering premises) for employees of external companies.

A risk assessment resulting from the work carried out by each of the external companies and especially due to the co-activity between these external companies and the current activities of the user company (generation of new risks) must be carried out with rigor and meticulousness. The result of this risk assessment must appear in the document, whatever it may be, which will be signed by all the company managers or their representatives, then by all the employees of the external companies having to intervene on the site.

When the risks of co-activity between external companies and the user company are:

• likely to exceed 400 cumulative hours/rolling year (include the cumulative hours of presence of each of the workers of the external company within the walls of the user company)

  OR

• likely to appear on the list of dangerous work defined by the labor code ( Decree of March 19, 1993 ) without the notion of cumulative hours

  
  

A prevention plan must be drawn up ( Decree No. 2008-244 of March 7, 2008 ) whose non-exhaustive content is:

• the definition of dangerous activity phases and the corresponding specific means of prevention;

• the adaptation of materials, installations and devices to the nature of the operations to be carried out as well as the definition of their maintenance conditions;

• instructions to be given to workers;

• the organization set up to provide first aid in the event of an emergency and the description of the system put in place for this purpose by the user company;

• the conditions for the participation of workers from one company in the work carried out by another in order to ensure the coordination necessary to maintain safety and, in particular, the organization of command.

The following must also be included in the prevention plan or attached to it:

• the distribution of maintenance costs between external companies (whose workers use the premises and facilities made available by the user company);

• the list of positions occupied by workers likely to be subject to increased individual monitoring of their state of health, due to the risks linked to the work carried out in the user company;

• where applicable, technical files containing information relating to the search for and identification of materials containing asbestos or the asbestos detection report.

If the operations to be carried out concern the loading and unloading of products or foodstuffs, a safety protocol will be drawn up. This is a simplified version of the prevention plan which is nonetheless regulatory ( art. R. 4515-4 and R. 4515-5 of the Labor Code )

On the other hand, following the joint preliminary inspection, if the nature of the work is construction or civil engineering and the site is closed and independent (understand that the personnel of the user company cannot enter it), a General Health and Safety Coordination Plan (PGCSPS) will be drawn up under the responsibility of an SPS coordinator. This PGCSPS will be broken down into as many Specific SPS Plans as there are external companies on the site.

The project owner has the SPS coordinator draw up a PGCSPS for construction operations:

• for which the expected number of workers must exceed 20 workers at any time during the work and the duration of which must exceed 30 working days;

• or whose planned volume of work must be greater than 500 man/days;

• lower than the previous volumes but where work belonging to the list of work presenting particular risks will be carried out.

The PGCSPS must be attached to the other documents provided by the project owner to contractors who are considering entering into a contract.

If the PGCSPS is not attached to the Business Consultation File (DCE), the project owner or coordinator cannot require you to draw up your PPSPS.

The two documents are interdependent and the information contained in the PGCSPS is essential for you to write your plan.

These numerous and thick documents should in no way obscure, depending on the circumstances, and potentially cumulatively, the drafting of fire permits (hot spot work permits), work authorizations or even entry authorizations (in confined spaces), but I will save that for another article.