Update on ISO 45001 – The Occupational Health and Safety Management System

Update on ISO 45001 – The Occupational Health and Safety Management System

The Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) of ISO 45001, the Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard was published at the end of November 2017.

Publication of the final standard is likely to be at the end of February/beginning of March 2018.

ISO 45001 will replace OHSAS 18001 and organizations currently certified to OHSAS 18001 will have a three-year period to migrate to ISO 45001.

FDIS ballot opened on 30th November 2017 and closed on 25th January 2018 when national standards bodies (NSBs) had an opportunity to vote on the FDIS, without any further comments on the structure or content of the standard being allowed. Therefore, the final standard will be published with only very minor changes to the FDIS version.

ISO 45001 will afford organizations an opportunity to align their strategic direction with their health and safety management system thereby improving their occupational health and safety performance.

ISO 45001 has been designed to help organizations:

·         Enhance leadership and commitment

·         Identify workplace hazards, conduct risk assessments and implement effective controls

·         Prevent injury and ill-health to their employees

·         Ensure compliance with health and safety legislative requirements

·         Improve their safety culture

·         Increase consultation with and participation of their employees

·         Increase health and safety considerations in procurement and contracting activities

·         Improve training and awareness in their employees

·         Enhance emergency preparedness and response

The structure of ISO 45001 is based on Annex SL format and terminology. Annex SL was developed to ensure that all ISO management system standards share a common format irrespective of the specific discipline to which they relate.

Annex SL prescribes a high-level structure, identical core text, and common terms and core definitions. ISO 45001 contains the following principal clauses:

·         Clause 1 Scope

·         Clause 2 Normative references

·         Clause 3 Terms and definitions

·         Clause 4 Context of the organisation

·         Clause 5 Leadership and worker participation

·         Clause 6 Planning

·         Clause 7 Support

·         Clause 8 Operation

·         Clause 9 Performance evaluation

·         Clause 10 Improvement

Submitted by our training partners Antaris