BIRTH OF ISO 45001:2016 [HSE-MS]

THE BIRTH OF ISO 45001:2016 (HSE-MS)

BS OHSAS 18001 is a framework for an occupational health and safety management system. It can help you put in place the policies, procedures and controls needed for your organization to achieve the best possible working conditions, aligned to internationally recognize best practice.

You must now be aware that BS OHSAS 18001 is changing into ISO 45001:2016 in late 2016. So far there has been an initial draft copy issued [draft international standard (DIS1)].

Update on ISO 45001 – February 2017

Following the latest ISO 45001 working group meeting which was held during the week of February 6 2017, a second draft international standard (DIS2) is expected to be published in April 2017; there will then be a 4 month period to allow for translations and a ballot to be held on the DIS2. DIS2 will be available for review free (clause by clause) on BSI’s online Draft Review system.

If DIS2 is approved and the final draft international standard (FDIS) stage is not required, publication of the new standard could be as early as November 2017. However, if an FDIS is required, the publication is more likely to be in Q2 2018.

Key Changes ISO 45001 vs OHSAS 18001

Annex SL Integrated Structure

Key Benefits of ISO 45001:2016

·         ISO 45001 enables an organization, through its OH&S management system, to integrate other aspects of health and safety, such as worker wellness/wellbeing.

·        The ISO 45001 standard calls for the organization's management and leadership to integrate responsibility for health and safety issues as part of the organization's overall plan rather than shift responsibility to, for example, a safety manager.

·        It uses a simple plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model, which provides a framework for organizations to plan what they need to put in place in order to minimize the risk of harm.

     ISO 45001 will implement the Annex SL process and structure, making integration of multiple ISO management system standards easier, such as ISO 9001, Quality management systems and ISO 14001, Environmental management systems.

·        The ISO 45001 standard calls for the organization's management and leadership to integrate responsibility for health and safety issues as part of the organization's overall plan rather than shift responsibility to, for example, a safety manager.

     

Reduce work related injuries, ill health and death

     

 * International Labour Oorganization statistics Jan 2016

• Eliminate or minimize OH&S risks
• Improve OH&S performance and effectiveness
• Demonstrate corporate responsibility and meet supply chain requirements
• Protect brand reputation
• Motivate and engage staff through consultation and participation

What are the main changes expected in ISO 45001? 

There are now 10 clauses, which is a significant departure from OHSAS 18001. The requirements are better organized around the new 10 clause structure which all the other Management System standards will follow in the future (including ISO 9001 and ISO 14001).

    1.0    Scope   

    2.0    Normative References   

    3.0    Terms and Definitions

    4.0    Context of the Organization

    5.0    Leadership

    6.0    Planning

    7.0    Support

    8.0    Operation

    9.0    Performance Evaluation

    10.0  Improvement

4.1 Context of the Organisation: The intention of this is to ensure that the organisation has a high-level understanding of the important issues that can affect, either positively or negatively, the way the organization manages its responsibilities in relation to the OH&S Management System for persons working under its control.  The issues are those that affect the organization’s ability to achieve the intended outcome, including the objectives it sets for its OH&S Management System, which include meeting its OH&S policy commitments.

4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties: The organization needs to establish whom the interested parties (such as legislative bodies, clients, the public, etc.) are and whether or not they are relevant to OH&S, and to identify the needs and expectations that those interested parties have.

5.1 Leadership: ISO 45001 adds an important new requirement; that top management has to demonstrate its leadership and commitment, and by taking accountability for the effectiveness of OH&S.

5.2 Policy: This now needs to make mention of the organisation’s commitment to continual improvement and has a commitment to worker participation and consultation.

6.0 Planning: You now need to consider risk and opportunities associated to the issues you identified in 4.1 with regards to requirement(s) of the interested parties.

7.0 Support: This requirement takes into account the areas of Resources, Competence, Awareness, Communication and Documented Information. Apart from restructuring of the requirements there is very little change.  The most notable change is use of the term “documented information”, not “documents and records”, as is the case in OHSAS 18001. Documented information includes processed information held, for example on smartphones, tablets and the cloud.

8.0 Operations: This requirement takes into account the areas of Operational Planning and Control, Management of Change, Outsourcing, Procurement, Contractors and Emergency Preparedness and Response. There is very little change from OHSAS 18001 in this requirement apart from making some of these requirements more specific and explicit.

9.0 Performance Evaluation: This requirement takes into account the areas of Monitoring, Measurement, Analysis and Evaluation, Evaluation of Compliance, Internal Audit and Management Review. Again, there is very little change from OHSAS 18001 in this requirement apart from making some of these requirements more specific and explicit.

10.0 Improvement: This requirement takes into account the areas of Incident, Nonconformity and Corrective Action and Continual Improvement.  As in other areas of ISO 45001, these follow the same requirements of OHSAS 18001 with the notable exception that Preventive Action is no longer mentioned, as this is managed under the concept of risk based thinking which is explicit throughout the standard.

There are many more minor changes in the new ISO 45001 standard in relation to OHSAS 18001 including lots of small changes to words, phrases and terms which have varying negligible impacts; however, in this blog I have tried to focus on some of the more significant changes. I would point that this blog is my interpretation of the first draft of ISO 45001 and once the next draft has been published, I will then revisit the standard with another blog – so keep checking back.