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Employee Health & Safety

Internal Responsibility System

The Internal Responsibility System (IRS) is a system in which every individual within the organization is responsible for health and safety. It is also a set of legal obligations for managing occupational health and safety. Success of the IRS is dependent on a complete and unbroken chain of responsibility and accountability for health & safety throughout the organization. Basic to this is the concept that solutions to health & safety issues in the workplace best come from employees themselves.

Six key concepts help define an internal responsibility system:

• Personal responsibility
• Inclusivity
• Co-operation
• Information Flow
• Proactive
• Accountability

This graphic represents the Internal Responsibility System model:

Hydro One's Health, Safety & Environment Management System (HSEMS) supports the functioning of the IRS. This system is a continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the actions we take to meet our health and safety obligations.

The Hydro One HSEMS is based on the OHSAS 18001 Guideline for Occupational H&S Management Systems and the ISO 14001 standard for Environment Management Systems. The HSEMS provides a framework for:

• Planning
• Implementation and operation
• Checking and corrective action
• Management Review