ISO 45001 poised to dethrone OHSAS 18001

Drawing from the private sector and various existing national standards (such as British Standards Institute BS 8800, Spain: A 81900, VCA Standard), OHSAS 18001 is now the most used standard by companies for implementing a health and safety management system. In July 2007, OHSAS 18001 was revised to be more aligned with ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental) standards.

Due to the updates to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 last year, OHSAS is no longer completely aligned with the quality and environmental management systems that follow the High Level Architecture structure (HLS).

The HLS structure was defined in Annex SL of ISO / IEC Directives, Part I in response to the editorial standardization wish of the ISO management system standards. Essentially this means that all management system standards will have the same contents: the requirements will be written similarly (when relevant), they will all have a common glossary of terms, and all will have the same basic definitions. ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 (Energy) are currently aligned under the HLS and Health and Safety is following suit.

To simplify the implementation of an integrated management system across Quality, Safety, and Environment, in 2013 ISO began working on the draft international voluntary Health & Safety standard, ISO 45001. On February 12, 2016, the public inquiry on the draft ISO 45001 standard opened. This draft standard follows the HLS architecture and is built around the now famous PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) applied to quality, environment and energy.

What is different in the draft ISO 45001 standard

Some new features of ISO 45001 compared to OHSAS 18001:

• Global consideration of the needs and expectations of interested parties (such as legal and regulatory authorities, suppliers, providers, labor and business organizations, etc.). This understanding is part of identifying health & safety issues and in defining the scope of health & safety management system.

• Leadership, support,and a demonstrated commitment by the company management in implementing the health & safety management system. This is particularly focused on the Director level ensuring its commitment to health and safety by assuming the “overall responsibility and obligation to the protection of health and safety work-related workers.” It is not sufficient to simply identify and reduce risks, the management must have a responsibility and obligation to protect the health and safety of workers.

• The establishment of a process of participation / cooperation and consultation of employees and their representatives at all levels (including occupational risk assessment communication indicators and factors for success or progress).

• Training, awareness and information of employees with the aim to improve risk management and analysis of risk situations.

• If the agency decides to consider the needs and expectations of stakeholders and include them in the planning and implementation of the management system, it will have to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of measures to be taken and put in place the necessary means of control.

The next steps

Since February 12, 2016, ISO 45001 has reached the draft international standard stage (DIS stage). As of this date, the national bodies of ISO members (for the United States, ANSI) have 3 months to submit their comments on the content of the document and vote on the standard.

If the vote is positive (expected end of voting May 12, 2016), the modified document reflecting any comments, will be circulated to the ISO members as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS).

If the FDIS vote is positive, the publication of ISO 45001 as an international standard could come by the end of 2016 / early 2017.