All employees, including contractors working in our facilities, share personal responsibility to create and maintain a safe work environment. Everyone has a significant role in both personal safety and that of their co-workers. The Eaton Safety Policy is part of doing business right. It guides us in our progress toward eliminating injuries and illnesses in our workplace.
In 2020 we reduced our Total Recordable Case Rate (TRCR) by more than 25% (0.40) and our Days Away Case Rate (DACR) by 26% (0.17) compared to 2019. Our TRCR of 0.40 is well below what we define as a world-class safety rate. Our longer term goal is to reach 0.25 TRCR. In the past three years, we had zero fatalities at our sites. Download our Sustainability Report for more.
Eaton’s safety principles underline the importance of protecting our employees’ well-being:
Our Safety Principles require each individual to be responsible and accountable for recognizing and correcting at-risk behavior or unsafe conditions. This includes abiding by the following core Safety Expectations. We consider these expectations to be absolutes, because a violation could result in serious injury or even death.
The following rules must be followed at all times. Violation will result in termination.
Working safely is a condition of employment at our company. We will not permit retaliation against an employee who in good faith reports a safety violation. Employees who violate core Safety Expectations or other safety requirements may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination. Violation of the Zero Tolerance Life Saving Rules will result in termination.
Our goal is to provide a secure and safe work environment for all of our employees, contractors, and visitors. The EHS Handbook applies to all third parties performing activities at our locations. This includes suppliers, contingent workers, contractors, vendors, visitors, and all other non-Eaton employees. The handbook provides a brief summary of the EHS practices required for working at our company. Handbook compliance — and of all legal, site and project-specific requirements — is a condition of working for our company.
View handbook for Eaton-controlled sites
Our employees and contractors may perform work on premises not controlled by Eaton, such as service activities at customer locations. In such cases the provision of a secure and safe work environment might depend on the actions (or failure to take action) of others. The EHS guideline provides a summary of requirements to be considered by those parties with overall EHS responsibility on such sites, as compliance of such — and of all legal, site- and project-specific requirements — is a condition of working on non-Eaton controlled sites. Eaton personnel or contractors are entitled to stop activities and withdraw themselves from the place of work whenever any requirement outlined in the EHS guideline is not met, or whenever they would consider themselves or Eaton property to be exposed to unacceptable health and safety risks being generated by third parties due to lack of appropriate control.
Eaton’s risk assessments and audits of our health and safety procedures provide tangible results.
To accelerate our execution of a Zero Incident Safety Program we deploy our focus site program. We strategically select the sites based on recent health and safety performance and existing safety culture. The program seeks to improve the health and safety of our employees while rigorously nurturing a Zero Incident Safety Culture. We do this by focusing on and implementing the fundamentals of a successful safety program, which includes:
To ensure continuing safety performance, we regularly refresh communications on key safety values and behaviors. This is supported by many types of EHS training for all employees as well as specialized training for leaders.
Our Safety Awards program honors those sites with outstanding safety performance. These awards recognize sites that practice outstanding safety performance, including: