2012 Sustainability Report

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Commitment to Safety

Communication

At Con Edison, open communication is critical to success and continued improvement in our safety performance. We offer a number of means by which safety information can be communicated to employees, but also so that employees can communicate safety concerns to supervisors and subject matter experts who are able to address them quickly and effectively.

Each month, every employee receives a Speaking Safety message from Con Edison of New York President Craig Ivey. These concise messages keep readers current about safety-related topics of interest, provide year-to-date updates on safety performance, and reinforce the company’s commitment to achieving an injury-free workplace.

Employees also have access to environment, health, and safety communications, policies and procedures from the EH&S Connect intranet site, and hard copies of certain safety documents are available as needed.

Con Edison produces and issues a monthly video news magazine called The Excellence Files, covering environmental, health, and safety issues, special features, lessons learned from significant events, and tool or process innovations. The series is available to all employees through the EH&S website. Episodes are regularly featured at monthly safety meetings which are hosted by local organizations throughout the year to celebrate achievements, review lessons learned, and focus on EH&S performance.

Safety is also a focus every day as first-line supervisors conduct daily job briefings covering environmental, health, and safety issues at the start of the shift when work is assigned, and during the job, as needed, if changes are made.

Con Edison encourages employees to advise their managers of any identified unsafe conditions or risky situations that could result in accidents or injuries. Management and union employees are provided with a Close Call system for reporting situations where accidents or injuries were narrowly avoided. The Close Call program is enhanced by the Good Catch! program, which recognizes employees for exceptional situational awareness and strong questioning attitudes that may have helped them recognize a Close Call.

Any employee is able to call a Time Out if an environmental, health, or safety issue arises on the job. If an employee has an EH&S concern, they must discuss it with their supervisor before proceeding with the job. After discussion, if there is still uncertainty on how to proceed or the concern is not adequately addressed, the employee has the right to call a Time Out. When a Time Out is called, work stops until an EH&S representative and subject matter expert have addressed the relevant concerns, or an alternate work plan has been organized. Top management regularly communicates support for the program and encourages employee participation. The Time Out program empowers employees to stop work when EH&S concerns arise in the field, and to resolve the issues before work proceeds.

O&R communicates safety messages through health and safety training programs, skills-training programs, and daily job assignment briefings by supervisors and crew chiefs. Animated safety messages are relayed on electronic bulletin boards throughout the facilities and "Safety Grams" are documents distributed to employees on timely issues such as recent accidents or seasonal safety concerns. The (THINK)(ASK)(PLAN) program was deployed to O&R for the second year in 2012.

Employees are encouraged to report situations where accidents or injuries are narrowly avoided.
The EH&S Connect intranet site provides safety bulletins, tracks injury trends, and offers a closer look at safety concerns.
We highlight employees who made a Good Catch! and recognized a problem before it caused an accident or injury.
An e-mail blast shared the story of an employee who put out a fire at his home based on fire safety lessons learned at work.