Four days. Jérémy Wasson’s only professional experience didn’t last long. The internship of this new student at the special school for public works, construction and industry (ESTP) was supposed to last two months and take place at the company Urbaine de Travaux (subsidiary of the construction giant Fayat). On May 28, 2020, he was sent alone to the roof of the construction site of the unified command center of the SNCF lines in the east of Paris, in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis). At 1:30 p.m. he fell while walking through a poorly protected smoke vent – a hole in the ground waiting to develop. He died two days later at the age of 21.
Jérémy’s accident left the large construction school in a state of shock. “This is the worst thing that has happened to me in thirty years of higher education.”, says Joël Cuny, Director General of ESTP and then Head of Training. Amazement gave way to lively tributes. A bit short though… The ESTP did not become a civil party to the process, regrets Frédéric Wasson, Jérémy’s father, who emphasizes this “Fayat is the sponsoring company for advertising [s]we son…”, or that Urbaine de Travaux will hire dozens of interns from the school from 2021.
Interns, vocational students in vocational training, trainees… Young people pay a high price in workplace deaths: 36 workers under 25 did not survive a work accident in 2022, says the latest report from the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM). That’s 29% more than in 2019. And again, this only affects general system employees. The CNAM also emphasizes that these are more accidents compared to other work-related accidents “classic, i.e. excluding illnesses and suicides”and traffic accidents.
“Complete irresponsibility”
The inexperience of these young people, if not offset by increased support, partially explains this excess mortality. About 15% of serious and fatal accidents occur in the first three months of employment, and more than half of workers under 25 who die at work had been with the company for less than a year.
Tom Le Duault died on Monday, October 25, 2021. The technical-commercial BTS student then begins his fourth short contract at the LDC Bretagne slaughterhouse in Lanfains (Côtes-d’Armor). His mother has worked there for 29 years and he hopes to be able to put some money away. As with his first experiences, he is “cut”, where he takes care of canning poultry. An employee was absent that morning. Tom has to put it back in the fridge where the meat boxes are stored. There he should stack the boxes with a forklift, a lifting device.
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