A recent study by International Labour Organization (ILO) says that every day almost 7700 people die out of industrial accidents totaling to 2.78 million every year and still counting. Besides this, each year almost 374 million people suffer from the work-related disorders causing absenteeism from their work. Doesn’t these huge numbers sound upsetting? Of course, Occupational injuries are always bothersome catastrophes. Negligence on it can cause serious damages and ineffable losses to the enormous lives and the organizations as well.
To avoid such difficulties, ISO has designed a set of new and effective standards, ISO 45001, “Occupational Health and Safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use”, by a committee of Occupations Health and Safety Specialists, which integrates and aligns with other generic management system such as ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) and ISO 9001 (Quality management). The main objective of this effectual set of standards is to improve the work safety principles and to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses worldwide by bringing the Safety World Together with ISO 45001.
The ISO 45001 framework replaces the World’s previous reference standard for Occupational Health & Safety OHSAS 18001. The new Occupational Health and Safety standards are grounded on the simple model of PDCA (Plan-DO-Check-Act). By these set of frameworks, Organizations can plan the safety measures on what to include, with the purpose of minimizing the risks at workplace.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published this new global standard on 12 March 2018.
This document provides a framework to enable businesses to implement effective arrangements for managing occupational health and safety. The implementation of an OH&S management system is a strategic and operational decision for an organization. The success of the OH&S management system depends on leadership, commitment and participation from all levels and functions of the organization.
The standard will help organizations reduce the burden of occupational injuries and illness by providing a framework that can be adopted to improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions, to all stakeholders.”
Key Changes include:
- ISO 45001 is based on the ISO Guide 83, which defines a common high level structure, text and common terms and definitions
- There is a stronger focus on the “organization’s context” where organizations will have to look beyond their own health and safety issues and consider what the society expects from them
- Requires the incorporation of health and safety aspects in the overall management system of the organization, thus driving top management to have a stronger leadership role with respect to the OH&S management system.
- Focuses on identifying and controlling risks rather than hazards
- Requires organizations to take into account how suppliers and contractors are managing their risks.
- Some fundamental concepts are changed, like risk, worker and workplace.
- New definitions of terms such as: monitoring, measurement, effectiveness, OH&S performance and process.
- The terms “document” and “record” have both been replaced with the term “documented information” documented information must be maintained to the extent necessary to have confidence that the processes have been carried out as planned.
Are you interested to make a promising career in safety or to make your workplace safer? Other than acquiring knowledge on ISO 45001, NIST can provide a platform to make it easy for you! NIST has been contributing to Safety through its exceptional and incomparable Training, Auditing, Consulting, and Recruitment & staffing services. NIST contributes in Creating a Better and Safer Workplace for over a decade and will continue to serve its best. To equip yourself safer, get trained or serviced, contribute your part in Occupational Safety and make your Organization a better place to work-in; please connect with us.
NIST Global - NEBOSH IGC | Safety 