We put safety first every minute of every day – for our people, contractors, and communities. This means our work to identify, assess and mitigate occupational safety risks is never finished.
Each of our local businesses invests in programs and actions to ensure our people’s health and safety, specifically tailored to the realities of each location. The benefits we provide our people, the services we deliver, and the policies we put in place are continuously reviewed by the organizational environment and market surveys to guarantee we are aligned and compliant with all local practices and legal requirements.
How we ensure the safety of our contractors is no different. Each of our businesses has established contractor safety protocols that verify contractor qualifications and outline required training for all contractors before beginning work. This includes site- and task-specific safety training that must be completed prior to starting a contract.
Safety management
Our Safety Management System (SMS) is built on the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System model. The SMS covers functional elements in the areas of leadership, structure, and processes and actions. It provides a consistent framework for our safety management expectations. In 2019, approximately 62% of our locations elected to formally certify their SMS to the OHSAS 18001/ISOS 45001 international standard.
Our SMS requires each business to:
- Establish and maintain procedures for the identification and reduction of health and safety risks;
- Investigate work-related injuries and incidents;
- Have consistent global methods for managing occupational health;
- Implement our policy of conducting all business in a responsible manner, free from controllable hazards;
- Respect the health and safety of all AES people, contractors, customers, suppliers, and community neighbors of AES businesses;
- Introduce safety criteria in procurement and contractual requirements;
- Comply with all applicable health and safety laws and regulations of countries where our businesses operate; and
- Achieve AES’ vision of being a recognized global leader for progressive, best-in-class health and safety practices.
At the core of our SMS are the safety beliefs and safety principles, which we established to continuously reinforce the importance of safety.
AES safety beliefs
- Safety comes first for our people, our contractors, and the individuals in our communities. All work activities worldwide must be conducted in a safe manner that promotes personal health, safety, and well-being.
- All occupational incidents can be prevented.
- Working safely is a condition of employment, and each person is responsible for their own safety as well as the safety of their teammates and the people in the communities in which we work.
- All AES people and contractors have the right and obligation to stop work as soon as they identify a situation they believe to be unsafe.
AES safety principles
- Local business leadership is responsible for local safety performance.
- Local business leadership is expected to provide the appropriate human and material resources necessary to ensure that all people working for AES have the means to work safely.
- Each business and its people are expected to comply with all applicable occupational health and safety requirements in the jurisdictions in which they operate.
- All AES people are expected to adhere to all occupational health and safety programs and requirements adopted by the business in which they work.
- All contractors engaged by a business are expected to adhere to the same occupational health and safety standards as AES people.
- All businesses are expected to continuously strive to improve their occupational health and safety performance.
Safety performance reporting
We believe all occupational incidents are preventable, which is why we have instituted several programs targeted to proactive safety practices. Our safety incident reporting is substantially based on U.S. OSHA reporting requirements (29 CFR 1904) and tracks proactive and reactive safety metrics.
Some of our proactive safety metrics include safety walk performance, identification of unsafe behaviors and conditions, near-miss incidents, and progress on safety action plans. These metrics aim to prevent the occurrence of incidents and injuries.
Reactive metrics are considered opportunities for improvement and include first aid incidents, OSHA recordable incidents, Lost Time Incidents (LTIs), and work-related fatal incidents.
Learn more about our safety achievements by visiting awards and recognitions.
Read more about our safety performance and metrics in our sustainability report.