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The sustained safety performance of APS employees has resulted in our company being in the top five performers in the past five years (twice listed as number one) as compared to like-sized investor-owned utilities by the Edison Electric Institute. Our management team is responsible and accountable for safety performance. However, leadership recognizes that the expertise in safe work practice design, application and performance resides with frontline employees and their immediate supervision. APS' success in safety is the result of the efforts of labor and management teams. These teams are supported by full-time safety and health professionals working cooperatively, in the various divisions and at each power plant. We believe this approach works best at APS and will continue to drive personal behaviors and safe work practices. The following describes three of the many teams approaches used to drive the safety program at APS:
Safety and Health Advisory Team
The Safety and Health Advisory Team is responsible for providing cross-functional strategic direction and leadership on companywide health and safety issues. The team consists of safety and health professionals and management from each business unit of the company. Each team member represents his or her respective business unit and communicates health and safety issues between the team and the facilities. The team makes recommendations to the EHS vice president on all matters requiring executive oversight.
The Safety and Health Advisory Team is supported by two different issue teams, a Prevention Team and a Compliance Team. The Prevention Team advances programs and practices that promote employee wellness and accident prevention. The Compliance Team addresses regulatory compliance matters and interpretation of best management practices.
Joint Health and Safety Committee
The Accident Prevention Manual (APM) Rules/Revision Committee is comprised of a group of company and Local IBEW employees who meet to review the safety rules and any employee requests for revisions to the manual. The committee, which is indicative of the partnership shared between the company and IBEW, in addition to fielding these requests will take individual sections of the manual and review them to determine if updating is necessary. Once a review is completed and change is deemed necessary, the manual is updated and brought to the committee for final discussion and signature. After the committee has signed off on the rule, it goes to the Safety and Health Advisory Team and the IBEW Executive Board for review, acceptance and implementation.
Craft Observation Teams
The Energy Delivery business unit at APS has established four full-time IBEW positions that conduct field observations of membership work practices and work conditions. These employees conduct on-site interventions to improve work practices and environments on a real-time basis. They are not required to report specifics of the observations to local supervision or management. They simply provide a summary of observations on a periodic basis. This technique enhances trust among union membership and creates an environment that is open to immediate corrective or improvement actions.
This same approach is used at several APS Generation facilities during critical overhauls and outages. Just as with the Energy Delivery personnel, generation employees welcome the intervention by peers and collaborate to achieve improved practices and conditions.
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