Peer safety initiative for gas workers
By Rich Lane
Last year was a busy one for the Control the Pressure (CTP) peer safety committee.
During 2013, committee members conducted 11 safety presentations at the Tracy Gas Academy, six unit meeting presentations, and three PG&E yard presentations in San Francisco, Fresno and the Yosemite Division. Committee member Ernie Pena was requested to join an accident investigation involving a gas worker who suffered a fall and was hospitalized.
PG&E routinely makes requests for peer initiative members to attend informational meetings with PG&E management. At November’s committee meeting these members were added: Lington Gordon, PG&E Santa Rosa, and Steve Lange, PG&E Chico.
Confidential interventions
One of the functions of all of the peer safety initiatives is to intervene at the request of safety stewards, business representatives, and sometimes management when employees encounter problems that are safety related.
This happens only with the agreement of the employee and in most cases behind the scenes.
When contact is made with an employee, time off is usually arranged without management knowing the purpose of the leave and a meeting takes place with the business representative, committee member or peer steward and the employee. A plan is made to address the problem and in most cases a peer steward or committee member is assigned to stay in contact with the employee and monitor the situation.
All persons involved are instructed not to share information or circumstances in order to assure the confidentiality of the process.