A draft plan for the development and publication of ISO 45001 was created in October 2013. In May 2014 the first draft of ISO / CD 45001 was approved by the committee and then the second draft ISO project / DIS 45001 in February 2015.
The final publication of the standard is expected for June 2017, but if require another FDIS (Final Draft of the International Standard) then, the new ISO 45001 will be approved as soon as possible in November 2017. But, in case there is an agreement with the text of the second DIS, the standard may be approved in June 2017.
The end result is expected to be an up-to-date health and safety management standard that will allow for the feasible and efficient integration with the requirements of ISO 14001 and ISO 9001.
In the DIS version of the ISO 45001 standard contains 10 clauses and 10 annex, in which each annex provides additional information per each one of the clauses of ISO 45001.
The principal new aspects respect OHSAS are the following:
Context of the organization
The context of the organization is a new concept compared to the OHSAS 18001 standard.
The business activities will have to consider all internal and external issues relevant to its Occupational Health and Safety Management System. The clause emphasizes workers and stakeholders, as well as their needs and expectations.
Opportunities and risks
The standard introduces the concept of risk and opportunity to combine the management of health and safety at work with business objectives.
Unlike the risk assessment (Clause 6.1.2 ISO/DIS 45001) the analysis of risks and opportunities refers to identifying those situations related to hazards and their risks or legal requirements that may cause changes in the organization or its processes.
In this sense, if a listed company suffers a fatal or very serious accident, this could affect the development of its operations due to the impact that the situation can generate among shareholders.
A part of these, an improvement in health and safety conditions can represent (for example) an opportunity for the business to contribute to the increase of productivity.
The standard introduces the concept of risk and opportunity, with the objective of aligning the management of safety and health at work with business objectives.
Lidership
The new standard is based on leadership as a key factor in establishing and implementing the OHS Management System in an effective way. Top management is responsible for creating and transmitting the preventive culture within the organization and must be able to demonstrate the commitment.
An important detail is that, while the rule allows top management to delegate responsibility for leadership and commitment actions to others, it retains responsibility and accountability to ensure that those actions are taken and encouraged.
Continuous improvement
The Clause 10 is absolutely new section, which focuses mainly on corrective actions. Preventive actions are dealt with in clause 6.
In addition, the fact that all common requirements of different standards have the same numbers of clauses, and the same structure and way of thinking, does that the integration of multiple management systems is much easier.
It is logical that the rule has a clause that establishes the requirement to have an emergency response process. Therefore, how is it mandatory how should your emergency response plan be tested and what benefits and improvements can be derived from that process?
In Full Consulting we have a team of auditors and consultants who are experts in the implementation of integrated management systems, and we are currently offering courses and training seminars on the new ISO 45001 that will come into force in the middle or end of 2017.
For more information you can contact us through our mail: info@fullconsulting.es
