How to Prevent Risks When Using an External Company?

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Using an external company: what does it mean?

We talk about using an external company when a company calls on another company (or several other companies) to carry out work or provide services within its establishment, one of its outbuildings, or one of its sites (Article R4511-1 of the Labour Code).

The company for which the work is carried out is called the “host company”, and the company carrying out the work or services is called the “external company”.

ℹ️ Note: Building or civil engineering sites subject to health and safety coordination (SPS) requirements are not covered by the regulations on using an external company (Articles R4511-3 of the Labour Code).

What are the risks when using an external company?

Using an external company creates numerous risks due to the interaction between activities. These risks add to the risks already present within the host company and the risks generated by the external company's activity.

The use of work equipment, the presence of installations or materials, unfamiliarity with the premises among the external company's workers, or the performance of hazardous work, are all risks to which workers from each company are exposed and for which they are not necessarily trained.

Companies must therefore jointly put in place general coordination of prevention measures in order to prevent risks linked to the interaction between activities, installations and equipment (Article R4511-7 of the Labour Code).

What is the host company's role?

📌 Important :

The role of the head of the host company is to ensure the overall coordination of the prevention measures put in place by each company (including the host company) (Article R4511-5 of the Labour Code).

⚠️ Please note: To ensure the overall coordination of prevention measures, the head of the host company must alert the head of the external company when informed of a serious danger concerning one of that company's workers, even if they believe the cause of the danger is solely attributable to that company (Article R4511-8 of the Labour Code).

In addition, the host company must provide external companies with sanitary facilities, shared changing rooms and catering areas, unless the external companies put in place equivalent facilities (Article R. 4513-8 of the Labour Code).

What is the external company's role?

📌 Important :

The role of the head of the external company is to apply the prevention measures necessary to protect the workers it employs (Article R4511-6 of the Labour Code).

Before the work begins, the head of the external company must also inform the workers assigned to this work of the specific hazards to which they are exposed and of the prevention measures linked to concurrent company operations, in particular (Article R4512-15 of the Labour Code):

• hazardous areas and their signage/marking;
• rules for the use of collective and individual protective equipment;
• the routes to take to access and leave the work site;
• the routes to take to access premises and facilities;
• where applicable, the location of emergency exits.

What information must the external company provide?

In order to understand the risks generated by the operations, the head of the external company must provide the host company, in writing, with (Article R4511-10 of the Labour Code):

• the arrival date and the expected duration of the work;
• the expected number of workers assigned;
• the name and qualifications of the person responsible for directing the work;
• the names and references of subcontractors (necessarily before the relevant work begins);
• identification of the subcontracted work.

How to prevent risks linked to using an external company?

Prior joint inspection

📌 Important :

Before the work or services begin, the companies must carry out a joint inspection of the workplace, installations and equipment (Article R4512-2 of the Labour Code).

During the prior joint inspection, the head of the host company must (Article R4512-3 of the Labour Code):

• define the area in which the external companies will be working;
• mark out the areas within that work zone that present hazards for workers;
• indicate the routes that workers, vehicles or equipment belonging to the external companies may use;
• define the access routes to premises and facilities (sanitary facilities, catering areas, etc.).

The aim of the prior joint inspection is to gain an overall view of the risks generated by the presence and activity of the companies involved.

Accordingly, the heads of each company must share with one another all information necessary for risk prevention, such as a description of the work to be carried out, the equipment used, or the working methods used, where these have an impact on workers' health and safety (Article R4512-5 of the Labour Code).

In addition, the head of the host company must communicate to the heads of external companies the safety instructions applicable to the workers responsible for carrying out the operation, including during their movements (Article R4512-4 of the Labour Code).

Drawing up the prevention plan

Following the prior joint inspection, and using the information gathered, the employers must analyse and assess the risks that may result from the interaction between activities, installations and equipment (Article R4512-6 of the Labour Code).

📌 Important :

Where this analysis reveals the existence of risks, the employers must jointly agree, before work begins, on a prevention plan defining the measures taken by each company to prevent these risks.

The prevention plan serves as a guide for putting in place prevention measures against risks linked to the interaction between activities, and must include, at a minimum (Article R4512-8 of the Labour Code):

• the definition of hazardous phases of activity and the corresponding specific prevention measures;
• the choice and use of equipment, installations and devices suited to the nature of the operations to be carried out, as well as their maintenance conditions;
• the instructions to be given to workers;
• the organisation and description of first aid arrangements put in place by the host company;
• the conditions for workers' participation in the work being carried out, in particular the organisation of command.

Note: the prevention plan must be formalised in writing if the operation involves more than 400 hours of work spread over 12 months or less, or involves hazardous work among those listed in the order of 19 March 1993 (general scheme), the order of 10 May 1994 (agricultural scheme), or the order of 11 June 2019 (mines and quarries).

🔍 Focus: For loading and unloading operations (such as a delivery to a company), the prevention plan is replaced by a safety protocol setting out in particular the conditions (locations, equipment used, etc.) and the safety measures required for these operations (Article R4515-4 of the Labour Code).

Implementing prevention measures

While the work or services are being carried out, each company must apply the measures set out in the prevention plan, and the head of the host company must ensure that these are actually being implemented (Article R4513-1 of the Labour Code).

📃 Documentation: To find out about all the specific health and safety requirements applicable when using an external company, feel free to consult Circular DRT No. 93-14 of 18 March 1993.

Coordination inspections

Throughout the work, the head of the host company must organise periodic inspections and meetings (Article R4513-2 of the Labour Code).

These periodic inspections and meetings may lead to an update of the prevention plan (Article R4513-4 of the Labour Code).

These inspections and meetings may cover:

• either the overall coordination within the host company's premises;
• or the coordination of prevention measures for a specific operation;
• or the coordination of measures relating to the interaction between several operations.

ℹ️ Note: The head of the host company is free to determine the frequency of these inspections and meetings and chooses which heads of external companies it is useful to invite. However, these periodic inspections and meetings must take place every three months for operations exceeding 90,000 hours for the coming year (Article R4513-5 of the Labour Code).

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What is the liability when using an external company?

Preventing risks linked to the interaction between activities is an obligation for all employers involved in the operation, whether the heads of external companies or the head of the host company.

Therefore, in the event of a workplace accident or a breach of safety obligations, employers' civil and criminal liability may be engaged (Article 121-3 of the Criminal Code).

Example: In this case law (Cass, crim, 14 February 2023, No. 21-82.245), a local council called on an external company to carry out an ultrasonic measurement of the thickness of a dam's flap gates. Unfortunately, a diver's boat capsized during the operation and the diver died.

The employers were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, in particular because they had not carried out the prior joint inspection. The prevention plan could therefore not comply with the regulations, since it did not result from a genuine risk analysis.

In addition, the employers were convicted because they had not provided workers with the protective equipment necessary to carry out this operation.

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