Nicolas Martins, backfill team leader, joined ECT in 2013 on a four-week fixed-term contract. Since then, he has progressed from reception agent to backfill team leader, specializing in active backfill quarries. With over ten years’ experience, he embodies the rigor and adaptability that are essential in field jobs.
Can you tell us about your career at ECT?
In December 2013, I joined the ECT site in Combs-la-Ville (77) as a reception agent for a four-week fixed-term contract. Little did I know at the time that this would mark the start of a career spanning more than ten years, notably in underground quarry backfilling. I was soon assigned to Baillet-en-France, a Placo® Saint Gobain quarry. There, I started out as an usher. This position gave me solid experience. Thanks to CACES training, I was then able to develop my skills in machine operation, which became a real passion.
What skills have you developed during your career?
The role of underground quarry salesman taught me to be rigorous and vigilant. I had to pay constant attention to safety, equipment management and soil quality. In 2019, with the opening of an outdoor soil unloading platform, I moved on to a different job. I spent a year on a dumper hauling soil from the platform to the galleries. Then I moved to the Placo® Saint Gobain quarry in Vaujours, where I drove a trax underground to backfill and secure the galleries, using a clavage method.
How did you progress to a management position?
At ECT, I acquired a strong expertise in site management and management. I learned a lot from my colleagues Thierry Blanck, site manager, and Antoine Oury, operations manager. Their operational approach has helped me structure my work and provide better support for my teams. In 2024, having acquired a good command of the sites and their challenges, I was offered the position of backfill team leader in the quarries. It was a natural progression, and my integration was very well received by my colleagues.
What are your roles as backfill foreman?
Since the beginning of 2024, I’ve been backfill team leader at two Placo® Saint Gobain sites: Vaujours, an underground quarry (93), where I supervise around ten people, and Villeparisis, an open-cast quarry (77), with three employees. My role is to to ensure
the smooth day-to-day running of the site, and the management of personnel and equipment to receive and process the materials to be recycled, and to secure the underground and open-cast quarries. All this in compliance with quality, safety and environmental standards, and in a world of
co-activity with Placo teams. To ensure the successful completion of each assignment, I use
various tools: work permits, audits, prevention plans, monitoring of
reservations and reporting. Safety is my priority. That’s why we’ve installed a safety gantry at
and introduced a daily “safety quarter-hour”
to raise team awareness.
