GL Events, company in charge of setting up the temporary stands for the Olympic Games. Benoit Tessier / REUTERS
The newspaper L’Équipe learned of the interruption of construction at the Versailles Olympic site at the request of labor inspectors. According to them, there was a “serious and imminent danger of falling from a height” for the employees responsible for installing the stands and stands.
Cradle of the Olympic equestrian and modern pentathlon events, the Versailles site was the venue, on March 29, of a “2024 Olympics stage update” with the presence of numerous media and public figures, who were able to discover, in preview, the places and arrangements made for the occasion. In charge of building two thirds of the stands for the summer event, the company GL Events saw its construction site interrupted by the labor inspectorate. For the latter, it was not stopped but adjusted: “It was just an adjustment to the methodology».
Labor inspectorate calls for immediate stop
Visiting the Versailles Olympic site on March 8, the labor inspectorate demanded an immediate halt to the work immediately. And for good reason, employees are not safe in their workplace. “(The workers were) positioned on boards which were not attached to the structure, and they were therefore likely to slip, tip over or fall onto other employees located below,” says the inspectors.
A decision followed and supported by the court: “It follows from this that having regard in particular to the situation of serious and imminent danger of employees falling from a height, the emergency condition relating to the resumption of the construction site (…) is not met in this case.
GL Events fears delay
With the riding event starting on July 27, the company GL Events fears a delay following the suspension of work. The company is afraid that the latter will compromise “the holding of sporting events linked to the Olympic Games” and maintains that there are no major dangers. However, according to Paris 2024, the project has not fallen behind schedule. Please note that it has not been completely shut down at the Versailles site. Only work on the stand concerned was interrupted.
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