What WPO isn't

• WPO is NOT OPS Testing

• WPO’S are NOT conducted jointly with Carrier officers

• WPO is NOT a snitch program

• WPO will NOT be used as a discipline tool

• WPO data will NOT be used to focus OPS Testing

What WPO is

• WPO is a completely voluntary part of Safety Participation

• WPO is a risk identification measuring tool that's more accurate than OPS Testing or Carrier conducted WPO’s

  • OPS Testing produces "percent safe" results in the 90’s
  • Initial round of employee conducted WPO’s usually produces "percent safe" results in the 60’s and 70’s

    *Percent safe = number of tasks performed safely divided by the total tasks observed

• WPO is craft employee driven/administered/coordinated

  • All WPO participants selected by craft employees
  • After initially observing job tasks identified as “critical work practices,” future work practices to be observed are selected by the observers as a group
  • Observer group selects preventive actions*
    *Tools designed to alter the performance of a job task so that it is again within best practice, such as
    • Job safety briefings
    • Marathons
    • Work practice leveling
    • Establishing a switch maintenance program
    • Petitioning to modify best practice

  • Observer group sets the preventive action trigger *
    *The minimum level of percent safe (usually in the 90's) for a job task, below which preventive action is “triggered”

How WPO Works

• Trained volunteer craft observers make observations as they go about their normal daily tasks

• Each time a specified job task is observed, it's simply marked “Safe” or “Unsafe” with no other identifying notations

• After a predetermined number of observations are made, they are sent to the WPO Coordinator

• WPO Coordinator assembles and tabulates the observations received from all observers without notation as to which numbers came from which observer

• The resulting percent safe number determines whether countermeasures are necessary and is also the first data that's shared with the Carrier, hence the term "Double Blind”

• If the percent safe number is above the predetermined preventive action trigger, no action necessary

• If the percent safe number is below the trigger, preventive actions selected by the observer group are applied

• After countermeasures are applied, another round of observations is conducted to measure their effectiveness

• If the percent safe number is still below the trigger point

  • More vigorous countermeasures are applied
  • Another round of observations is conducted
  • Process is repeated until the desired percent safe level has been achieved

• As soon as observations indicate a job task is being performed at or above the percent safe level set by the observer group, a new work practice is selected by the observer group, and the observation process continues