CREATING A CULTURE OF ELECTRICAL SAFETY - AN IMPORTANT ASSET

The design of a safe plant layout is beyond the responsibility of individual employees, but it nevertheless is essential for good power production practices and safe working conditions. Narrow aisles, blind intersections, insufficient overhead space and limited access for equipment repair and maintenance all are detrimental to a safe operating environment.

The National Safety Council in the United States has estimated that work-related accidents in the private sector in 1988 cost industry an average of $15,100 per disabling injury. Based on this figure and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - which reported that in 1988 private U.S.

Industry, employing 90 million workers, had 6.2 million job-related accidents and injuries was in excess of $93 billion. Approximately, half of this total ($46 billion) was for such visible costs as damaged equipment and materials, production delays, time losses of other workers not involved in the accidents and accident reporting.

Similar statistics have been reported in the United Kingdom (UK) and in the European Community. The statistics support the premise that it is the responsibility of every employer to take a strong, proactive stance to ensure their employees' safety.

Designing for safe work environments also means proper scheduling of work activities. It should not be the operator's or worker's responsibility to determine the proper routing of work in process.

To make this type of decision a workers responsibility unfairly shifts to what is truly management's responsibility directly to the worker. It is management's responsibility to ensure that tight work standards are not only defined for each operating facility, but to ensure that procedures and policies are adopted and enforced.

Establishing fair work standards through work measurement or some similar technique is, without question, a prerogative and a right of management. Establishing and enforcing tight work standards has resulted and will continue to result in operators taking dangerous short cuts while completing tasks.

These short cuts often result in industrial accidents and injuries. By the same token, managers should use standards to ensure a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, but they should not use them as a whip to achieve maximum productivity through coercion.

Pressure placed on employees to meet tight production schedules results in the same type of problems as with tight work standards. Reasonable schedules based on reasonable capacity determinations and work standards eliminate the pressure and work-related stress placed on employees to overproduce because of unsafe short cuts.

Having a corporate culture that promotes and makes safety and environment a priority should be the goal of the industry. Creating a culture of safety first requires site-specific work practices and working environments to be carefully assessed with a focus on identifying high-risk areas, and then developing concrete plans for improved occupational and process safety performance.

Management must focus on using employee insights to prevent costly and potentially deadly accidents before they occur, creating a safer workplace by taking into account both the environment in which employees work and the culture that drives their daily work experience.

As an employer, it is your responsibility to provide a safe work environment for all employees, free from any hazards, and complying with legal and recommended best practices defined in the standards. Health and safety in the workplace is about preventing work-related injury and disease, and designing an environment that promotes well-being for everyone at work.

Knowledge is the key ingredient in providing a safe work environment. If everyone knows the correct procedures, accidents and injuries will be kept to a minimum.

Both employers and employees should:
• Ensure that the way work is done is safe and does not affect employees' health.
• Ensure that tools, equipment and machinery are safe and are kept safe.
• Ensure that ways of storing, transporting or working with dangerous substances is safe and does not damage employees' health.

Employers must:
• Provide employees with the information, instruction and training they need to do their job safely and without
damaging their health.
• Consult with employees about health and safety in the workplace.
• Monitor the work place regularly and keep a record of what is found during these checks.

Policies should be developed in consultation with employees, both with and without disability. It may be necessary to organize support persons or interpreters so that all employees may participate in the consultation.

Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) procedures must be implemented wherever the work is being conducted, be that in an office, factory, construction site, substation, along transmission line work or home. As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure all employees have access to information about safety procedures, and for any reasonable adjustments to be made.

It is crucial that new employees be:
• Briefed of all new staff on OH&S policy at induction.
• Be provided training on all safety procedures, including evacuation and other emergency procedures.
• Provided access to information about safety procedures, in appropriate formats.

It is crucial the existing employees:
• Have access to information in appropriate formats.
• Be provided with regular information updates and re-training sessions.
• Be provided access to information about safety procedures.
• Conduct relevant training on any new equipment or machinery.