STOP WORK AUTHORITY

Stop work authority, something to always remember and consider.  At E Light this is not limited to your right to stop work in unsafe conditions. It also means you have the duty and responsibility to say something when you see something that is not safe or right. It does not matter what your position is.

We all make mistakes and forget things. Your project manager may show up on your site and forget to wear their PPE, you need to say something to them about that and remind them they are required to have the minimum PPE while on site.  I might come to a project and forget my, over the ankle, work boots or my safety glasses.... you need to stop me and let me know I need to fix that. You will not be criticized or in trouble for saying something, quite the opposite it true...you will be in violation of company policy if you DON’T say something.

Making safety a core value means we don't change the procedures or the policies based on the circumstances or convenience. It also means that we all have to work together to remind each other to do things the right way and to make safety a core value. Old habits are hard to break and we tend to fall back into the way we have always done it. The problem with the way we have always done things is that in construction, for the last 20 years, five people have died every day just doing their jobs. That is unacceptable. We simply can not keep doing things the way we always have. We have to change our thought processes, our attitudes, our daily decisions and the way we do things. And we all need to help each other do that.