Highest safety standards

The employee health and safety management system has been implemented based on the recognized standard PN-ISO 45001:2018-06 “Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use”.

The approach to management of the PSE's employee health and safety is based on the integrated environmental and occupational health and safety management system in place. The system covers all employees, so its objectives are fulfilled by all organizational units. Contractors working with PSE must also meet the requirements established by the system, and are required to comply with its policies. A dedicated unit responsible for occupational health and safety as well as for meeting the requirements of the system is the Work Environment Management Office.

The scope of the Management System covers the activities of PSE as a transmission system operator in Poland, consisting in the provision of electricity transmission service and the provision of access to the national power system, while maintaining the required operational safety criteria for this system. Specifically, the System covers operation/maintenance and project implementation, as well as the use of the PSE’s headquarters and the company's field locations and vehicles.

In terms of location, the System includes performing work at substations and on company-owned power lines, performing work at the PSE’s headquarters and the PSE field locations in: Konstancin-Jeziorna, Warsaw, Radom, Poznań, Bydgoszcz, Katowice and Kraków.

• Ensuring compliance with legal requirements and following the available HSEQ (health, safety and environmental quality) practices with reference to employees, environmental protection, equipment and infrastructure maintenance, safety and quality, company operations, asset maintenance, and investment process implementation.
• Exercising supervision and control over working conditions and environment, as well as over observance of occupational health and safety, fire protection and environmental protection regulations and rules for the PSE's assets, in accordance with applicable laws, also during the investment process.
• Minimizing the probability of incidents in the work environment by implementing incident prevention solutions at the PSE Capital Group.
• Performing tasks related to determining the circumstances of potential incidents and accidents in relation to the work environment: human, environment, maintenance of equipment and infrastructure at PSE, as well as analysis and determination of root causes of incidents.

• Building a system and culture of safety and quality regarding the functioning of PSE, including the maintenance of assets and the implementation of the investment process.
• GRI 103-3 Developing the company's quality management in accordance with the accepted standards and best practices.
• Performing the duties of an occupational health and safety service.
• Supervising the operation of the fire protection system for the PSE facilities within the scope of the powers and authority of the fire protection inspector.
• Ensuring compliance with environmental requirements at the PSE facilities.
• Organizing and maintaining a system related to the supervision of the HSEQ work environment.
• Assisting units responsible for maintaining buildings, civil structures or grounds regarding occupational health and safety, environmental protection, and fire code requirements.
• Developing regulations regarding identification and analysis of hazards as well as risks to human and environmental safety at PSE.
• Collaboration with the Company's employee representatives in the scope of occupational health and safety consultations.
• Collaborating in the development and updating of standards, including technical and technological standards within the Office's realm of responsibility.
• Supporting the organizational units in the review of tender documentation and contracts regarding the HSEQ area.

The unit responsible for occupational health and safety management at PSE is the Office of Work Environment Management (BH). BH performs the duties of the occupational health and safety service, and has a leading role in identifying risks and developing standards regarding occupational health and safety. It also engages other units in activities related to this area. Communication with the employees is carried out, among others, by sharing documents – instructions, guidelines, orders – and current information on the intranet, through direct mailing to employees and publications in the corporate newspaper. BH analyzes the actual incidents and shares the knowledge about the identified causes of the incidents with the relevant persons in the organization. The company also provides a wide range of OHS training courses, including those required by law and those resulting from additional needs of the company. All OHS activities undertaken at PSE are included in the occupational health and safety management system, implemented and certified with reference to the requirements of PN-ISO 45001.

The identification and assessment of work-related risks is conducted based on the Manual for Hazard Identification and Occupational Risk Assessment at PSE. The quality of this process is guaranteed by the occupational risk assessment team (ZORZ), which comprises experts in occupational health and safety, HR management, medicine, industry-related matters, as well as representatives of the workforce and relevant organizational units.

Information on the results of occupational risk assessment is communicated to employees during initial and periodic OHS training. Occupational risk assessment sheets are updated periodically (at least every 2 years). The effect of occupational risk assessment are actions taken to reduce the risk, taking into account the hierarchy of hazard controls (e.g. elimination, substitution, engineering safety measures, organizational and administrative measures, personal protective equipment).

PSE has a system for reporting observations about the work environment through a HSEQ reporting platform. The employee has the option to make an anonymous (no blame policy) report as follows:

• POS positive observation,
• UC unsafe conditions,
• UA unsafe acts,
• NM a near miss without harm or damage,
• AC actual accident with harm or damage.

According to the provisions of the Labor Code and the Instruction for reporting incidents and hazards in the work environment, an employee has the right to refrain from work if the working conditions do not comply with the provisions of occupational health and safety. The aforesaid issues are always subject to the periodic safety training. PSE has a stop work policy that is implemented each time in the safe work organization manuals.

Accidents at work are investigated in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation on determining the circumstances and causes of accidents at work. Each time the employer appoints an accident investigation team consisting of an employee of the occupational health and safety service and a social labor inspector. After the analysis of the incident, corrective recommendations are made, taking into account the hierarchy of controls, indicated in the accident investigation report. In addition to the accident investigation, PSE uses a root cause analysis (RCA) for the event to identify and assess the risks associated with an accident or a near miss. Accident analysis is performed using PSE's HSEQ hazard and risk matrix.

As a result of the standards, policy and strategy implemented in the company, as well as out of concern for human and environmental safety, all contracts concluded in 2020 between contractors and PSE include HSEQ contract clauses for occupational health and safety, fire protection and environmental supervision. The versatility of HSEQ clauses is demonstrated by the fact that they are used identically in maintenance and service contracts.

The HSEQ clauses come in three variants, specifying the subject matter and details of the requirements imposed on contractors. The ability to select the variants of these clauses allows the contractual provisions to be tailored as needed to the risks that may arise during the performance of a particular contract.

PSE strives to increase awareness of human and environmental safety. We attempt to do this by improving the terms and conditions of contracts as elements of our collaboration with contractors, but also by engaging them in issues related to the safety of the employees, infrastructure, equipment and environment.

In 2020, PSE applied a table of contractual penalties introduced a year before as part of new contracts concluded with contractors for investment and maintenance tasks. The use of the table is recommended by the staff of the Office of Work Environment Management for identified incidents or violations by a contractor. Penalties are applicable to violations of occupational health and safety, fire safety as well as environmental regulations and rules.

In accordance with the applicable regulations, our organization has an Occupational Health and Safety Committee in place. Meetings between the employer representatives and the community representation are held on a quarterly basis. In addition, the company’s occupational medicine physician attends the meetings to analyze and advise on problems in the area of occupational medicine and health care. The Occupational Health and Safety Committee meetings are documented. The minutes are always taken of each meeting.

The Occupational Health and Safety Committee meetings are an occasion to discuss occupational health and safety issues related to, but not limited to the following:

• periodic reviews of the working conditions,
• proposals to improve the working conditions,
• analysis of potential hazards reported by employees,
• analysis of the conclusions and recommendations from cross-checks performed by the social labor inspectors and the OHS service, as well as the decisions made by the accident investigation teams,
• review and evaluation of specifications for the purchase of PPE, etc.

PSE has elected social labor inspectors divided into regional SLIs and the company’s SLI. The role of the SLI is described in the Act on the social labor inspection.

Employees can report their observations, problems, or risks in several ways, i.e. by:

• sending a report to HSEQ@pse.pl,
• using the HSEQ reporting platform,
• contacting the BH staff directly,
• contacting the Social Labor Inspector directly.

When drawing up instructions related to occupational health and safety, contract reviewers whose work is related to the subject of the document are always appointed.

OHS communication is effected, among others, through intranet publications, mailing to staff at every level of the organization, training, webinars and the company's magazine entitled “Transmission”.

GRI 103-3
In 2020, 26 internal audits covering the scope of occupational health and safety requirements were conducted for the improvement of the occupational health and safety management system. All audits performed resulted from the annual schedule adopted for the company. The audits were conducted randomly, and the criteria were based on PN-ISO 45001:2018-06, legal acts, administrative decisions and internal regulations. Audits were conducted in each of the company's 22 departments and offices. In the units with the highest hazards related, among others, to working with power equipment and to implementation of investment tasks, the audits were performed 2 or 3 times a year, by choosing different locations. None of the audits revealed non-compliance in the area of occupational health and safety. The results of the audits confirmed the effectiveness of the occupational health and safety management system in place at PSE, operationally integrated with the environmental management system.

At PSE, occupational risk is assessed periodically for the identified groups of jobs, as well as for newly created jobs. All the new employees hired in 2020 and the employees changing jobs were informed about the occupational risks of their jobs, and became familiar with hazards, preventive measures as well as work methods and organization.

Due to the creation of a new organizational unit of the Department of Safety – the Aerial Operations Support Division in 2020, risks were identified, assessed and documented in the risk assessment sheets for employees working as pilots and power line aerial inspectors. The risk documentation was developed according to the PN-N-18002 methods on a three-level scale, and using the Risc Score method.

The new hires, as required by law, receive initial training on their first day of work. Employees then receive dedicated periodic training to update and supplement their knowledge as well as skills, at specific periods depending on their job function. In 2020, the education and development platform “e-DeK” was implemented at PSE, through which periodic training is currently conducted for employees in administrative and office as well as engineering and technical positions, and for persons in charge of employees, in the form of self-directed learning. The content of the training, along with the results of the examinations, is stored in an ICT system. Training for blue-collar workers is conducted in the form of an induction training.

General training in our organization includes the following:

• initial occupational health and safety training provided on the employment date in the form of an induction training,
• periodic training in occupational health and safety, conducted for:
  • administration and office employees: first within 1 year as of the employment date, next every 5 years;
  • engineering and technical employees: first within 1 year as of the employment date, next every 5 years;
  • engineering and technical employees working in particularly hazardous conditions: every year;
  • employees on managerial positions: first within 6 months as of the employment date, next every 5 years;
  • blue-collar workers: once a year.

Form of training: self-directed learning, except for training for blue-collar workers (induction training).

Training on specific work-related hazards included:

• Safety leadership workshops: annual workshops for employees and contractors on safe work organization in the power sector.
  Webinar:
  • Module 1: Statistics and trends concerning cooperation with contractors / analysis of data collected during checks and inspections performed by BH.
  • Module 2: Occupational health and safety instructions for working with power equipment and systems / discussion of the newly implemented instructions at PSE, which fulfill the provisions of the Regulation of the Minister of Energy of August 28, 2019 on occupational health and safety when working with power equipment.
  • Module 3: HSEQ clauses in contracts with contractors / presentation of PSE standard contract clauses.
• Workshops on instructions for safe work organization – a month of experience. A webinar discussing frequently asked questions about the new instructions
• Webinars on hazards, ergonomics and the work environment.

The hazardous activities training provided in our organization includes:

• workplace safety training,
• training (induction training) before handing over a work area (each time),
• training based on reports of the Disturbance Investigation Committee and accident investigation reports.

Training on hazardous situations includes:

• workplace safety training,
• periodic training in occupational health and safety,
• training (induction training) before handing over a work area (each time),
• training based on reports of the Disturbance Investigation Committee and accident investigation reports,
• e-learning training for COVID-19 disease situations (a training on the e-DeK platform, based on PSE guidelines.

Mandatory trainings on the e-DeK platform (e-learning) delivered in 2020 covered the following topics:

• Temperature screening guidelines;
• COVID-19 disease management scenarios;
• Training for evacuation coordinators (employees reported for a stay in barracks);
• Training for persons designated to provide first aid and to operate AEDs (employees reported for a stay in barracks);
• Revisions to the integrated environmental and OHS management system policy and manual, and OHS.

The occupational health and safety training system are not only compulsory OHS trainings required by law. It is also a system of various training courses addressed to specific groups of employees.

All occupational health and safety inspections approved by the PSE President's order for 2020 have been completed. Inspections were carried out using checklists, and – due to the epidemic threat due to the COVID-19 pandemic – under a sanitary regime.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fire drills have been limited, but no deadline for drill execution required by law was exceeded. An additional series of medical drills followed. All fire drills were documented with reports outlining conclusions and recommendations for implementation, including the following:

1. Reviewing and updating the fire safety instructions regarding:
   • evacuation diagrams.
2. Updating the data regarding:
   • a list of persons designated for fire fighting and evacuation,
   • contact persons,
   • emergency phone numbers.
3. Removing defects in fire protection components that were diagnosed during the drills, which were related to the following:
   • fire alarm systems,
   • voice alarm systems,
   • fire doors.

Our organization conducts planned and ad hoc inspections of the work environment to identify hazards and risks, and to minimize the occurrence of hazards. Technical condition assessments are conducted. The organization provides measurements of the work environment such as noise, electromagnetic field, vibration, and electric shock hazards, among others. The results of the measurements are analyzed and, based on them, actions are taken to ensure that the negative effects on the health and lives of employees are minimized.

In 2020, 46 measurements of work environment were taken:

• 29 electromagnetic field strength measurements,
• 16 noise measurements,
• 1 vibration measurement.

No electromagnetic field strength or vibration excess values were found in any of the cases. Exceeded noise levels result from normal operation of equipment (compressors, helicopters) – to address this issue, collective and personal protection equipment is used along with organizational measures such as limiting the duration of presence in the zone, which results directly from the occupational risk assessment.

Risks and hazards are managed by controlling the hierarchy of hazards, starting with elimination. In the area of electric power facilities, particularly hazardous work is carried out by licensed and authorized persons as part of the process of safe organization in working with power equipment and systems, while ensuring multi-level verification and assurance of the activities carried out.

[MTC] Medical Treatment Case; minor injury, illness

[RWC] Restricted Work Case The employee cannot perform his/her work the next day, but is able to take another job / work in his/her position part-time or without performing all of the duties

[LTI] Lost Time Injury; major injury, illness. A work-related injury or illness that prevents the employee from engaging in any work the day after the incident

[FAT] Fatality: single fatality – a fatal accident or death due to a work-related injury or illness.

There were no new reports of occupational diseases among the employees of our company in 2020.

Between January and December 2020, 471 HSEQ checks were performed for ongoing investment tasks.

In September 2020, the second contractor workshops were held on HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environment and Quality) standards in the delivery of services contracted by our company. The agenda of the meeting included a presentation of the updated occupational health and safety instructions for power equipment and systems, which PSE has developed in accordance with the ordinance of the Minister of Energyof August 28, 2019 on occupational health and safety at Power Equipment, and a discussion of HSEQ clauses used in contracts for operation and investment tasks.

A meeting on similar subjects was also organized for employees, and was dedicated primarily to persons supervising the work of contractors and subcontractors.

Another element of building a safety culture at PSE is the development and dissemination of Life Saving Rules (LSRs) among PSE employees and associates.

This is a set of rules of conduct that address the biggest hazards associated with the company's operations. The documents indicate the responsibilities of persons performing the work and their supervisors, as well as prohibited actions. The LSRs are published in the form of posters and flyers. The rules are formulated as slogans calling for specific actions, namely:

1. Keep a safe distance! – due to the risk to health and life posed by electric shock and arc flash burns, for work on live equipment and near voltage sources;
2. Follow the work order instructions and use checklists! – for work on network assets carried out under particularly hazardous conditions, based on a written order;
3. Observe safe organization of work on power equipment and systems!
4. When working at heights, protect yourself and your tools from falling!
5. Wear work clothing, safety footwear and personal protective equipment whenever required!
6. Drive safely!
7. React to and report dangerous situations!