Groundbreaking Olympic Social Charter aims to bring decent work standards to Paris Games

GENEVA (ILO News) – The Social Charter, which was signed in 2018, is based around sixteen binding commitments that are aligned with the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s decent work agenda. It outlines a sustainable, responsible, and inclusive approach that covers the entire games delivery process and aims to create a strong social development legacy.

The commitments cover a broad range of decent work-related areas, including guarantees of minimum working conditions, help for small and medium-sized enterprises to take part in bidding and procurement processes, and ensuring that subcontractors and suppliers comply with International Labour Standards, particularly “decent work,” as defined by the ILO. There are also benchmarks to encourage gender diversity, the inclusion of people with disabilities, and skills development for young people.

“This Social Charter is something very strategic. We have been ambitious with the commitments, we did not follow the easy way, we wanted strong results,” said Marie Barsacq, Director of Impact and Legacy for the Organising Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She pointed out that the Charter has been central to the goals of the Games’ organizers of achieving two, equally important, objectives. “One is to organize a spectacular event to promote athletes and sports, but also to organize useful games that are more responsible in terms of environmental and social issues.”

The Charter brings together French trade unions and employers’ organizations with SOLIDEO, the body mandated with delivering the physical infrastructure of the games. For its part, the ILO has provided support for the workers’ and employers’ organizations to help them formalize their commitments and connect them with international partners.

Staging the Games has involved procuring Euro 2.5 Billion-worth of goods and services. Often, with tenders of this size, only large, often multi-national companies can meet the bidding criteria, bypassing local communities and businesses. From the start, the Paris organizers were determined this would not happen and that they would create the maximum social and environmental benefits from their budget.

“Our procurement strategy asked five questions to every company: What do you do in terms of the circular economy, to reduce your carbon footprint, to employ people with an impairment, to recruit people who are outside employment, and also what do you do to generate a local impact?,” said Barsacq.

Barsaq points out that this strategy also encouraged large companies to work with small and local enterprises, who also picked up valuable tips for improving their businesses. In consequence, she says, 79 per cent of the Games’ tender budget went to SMEs, including 500 social enterprises.

The standards that the Social Charter set also helped to ensure workers on construction projects were working legally and had regular contracts. “It’s very important that we demonstrate that if you invest in prevention, you have results,” Barsaq explained, pointing out that the Olympic constructions sites had only a quarter of the number of accidents averaged on equivalent projects in France.