http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20121003/san-onofre-nuclear-power-plant-california-edison-whistleblower-leaked-document-restructuring-fukushima-safety

Workers at San Onofre Nuclear Plant Report Culture of Fear, Deep Mistrust

Edison, the utility that runs San Onofre, is in upheaval as it digests new evidence that many of its employees are working in an environment of fear.

By Elizabeth Douglass, InsideClimate News
Oct 4, 2012
Story updated at 3 p.m. EDT, Oct. 4, 2012

The utility that runs California's troubled San Onofre nuclear plant is in the midst of unprecedented upheaval as it works to rein in bloated management, address ethics issues and digest new evidence that many of its employees work in a "pressure-cooker" environment marked by overwork, distrust and fear of retaliation, according to documents obtained by InsideClimate News.

The internal documents—one report, one companywide survey and a series of management e-mails—reveal that in the last few months, electric utility Southern California Edison has quietly begun a restructuring that has thus far included the ouster or retirement of several top executives, the consolidation of ethics investigations within SCE's corporate parent and the reorganization of several departments.

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According to the company's most recent employee ethics and compliance survey, summarized in a June 2012 presentation obtained by InsideClimate News, only 39 percent of the utility's workers agreed that Edison rewards people who follow its ethics and compliance standards. Only 54 percent said they could question management decisions without fear of retaliation. And 38 percent said Edison does not reward questionable actions, compared to 61 percent in a 2007 national survey that asked a similar question.

Karlene Roberts, an expert in workplace culture within high-risk industries and a professor at University of California Berkeley's Haas business school, said this about those survey results: "Those numbers are bad ... that company's in trouble."

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