News

Safety systems people…here is a brief summary of the main changes based on the Committee Draft. More to come as the industry digests the changes…

The new ISO 45001 has been based around the requirements of OHSAS 18001, so users of AS/NZS 4801 will find the changes to layout and language more pronounced. The overall aim of the standard remains the same, but there are some interesting revisions and additions.

New Content Structure: The first obvious change to users is the new ‘harmonised’ content structure, which fits with 14001 and 9001 and facilitates better alignment and integration for organisations with multiple systems. Alignment also allows for consistency in definitions of some of the important terms used in the standards.

Leadership and the Context of the Organisation: The new standard places a much stronger focus on the ‘context’ of an organisation, as well as a stronger role for top management and leadership similar to what is already embedded in ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. The organisation now needs to consider and address foreseeable internal and external risks that could impact its activities and health and safety performance, such as the introduction of new equipment, regulatory impacts, people issues (e.g. availability of competent workers, injury rehab).

Risks We Can Influence: Just as ISO 14001 did for environmental risks, the idea of considering and addressing health and safety risks associated with outsourcing services to contractors and others is included in the draft standard. Many organisations already manage contractors on their worksites well. It will be interesting to see interpretations of this, and just how far along the supply chain organisations will be expected to go.

Terminology: A new term, ‘documented information’, is introduced. This term covers information and data processed by software to make it more relevant or ‘user friendly’ to the organisation, and is likely to replace the traditional terms ‘documents’ and ‘records’. The term ‘preventive action’ has also been removed from the draft wording of ISO 45001 because it is considered unnecessary to have a specific clause on preventive action when one of the main reasons for having a safety system is to prevent injury and illness. Lastly, the standard will attempt to address some of the inconsistencies created by the various definitions of ‘workers’ and ‘workplaces’ across the world, especially in terms of certification scope.

So…a completely new look and some interesting new concepts. More to come as we digest the draft.

Catch you soon!