ISO 45001 Implementation

How to Become an Occupational Health and Safety Champion

Mehrdad Soltanifar

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032210551
• eBook ISBN: 9781000566215
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Over two million people worldwide die every year due to work-related accidents and illness, which corresponds to over 6000 deaths every day (International Labour Organisation, 2020). Globally, there are about 340 million occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related injuries and illness each year (International Labour Organisation, 2020). Occupational health and safety is a major challenge for many organizations.

Regardless of the size and nature of their business, organizations should protect their people and provide a safe and healthy working environment. They should identify the potential health and safety risks present in their workplace and take appropriate action to keep their workers free from harm. Occupational safety focuses on potential safety hazards that can cause injury. Occupational health, on the other hand, looks at potential health issues such as occupational medicine, occupational hygiene, and primary health care, including the wellbeing of workers.

For organizations that want to implement an occupational health and safety management system based on the ISO 45001:2018 standard but are not familiar with its structure and definitions, it often takes a significant amount of resources to understand the requirements of the standard and plan their implementation. This book provides guidance in establishing an occupational health and safety management system linked to the requirements of ISO 45001:2018. It aims to explain all the requirements of ISO 45001:2018 clause by clause to provide guidance to:

• Organizations preparing for ISO 45001:2018 implementation

• Individuals who want to build a career in occupational health and safety

• Health and safety practitioners and managers who want to improve their occupational health and safety performance

• Occupational health and safety consultants who prepare their clients for ISO 45001:2018 certification audits

• Internal and external auditors who audit occupational health and safety management systems.

In addition to the requirements of the standard, this book includes industry best practices, methods, and techniques to address these requirements. While clarifying each requirement of the standard, it also discusses the steps needed to achieve the requirement, areas that auditors may check, and mandatory or voluntary documents that may be maintained or retained to demonstrate conformity with the requirement.

Chapter 1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003266532-1

Over 2 million people worldwide die every year due to work-related accidents and illnesses, which correlates to over 6,000 deaths every day (International Labour Organisation, 2020). Globally, there are around 340 million occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related injuries and illness each year (International Labour Organisation, 2020). Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a major challenge for many organisations.

Regardless of the size and nature of their business, organisations should protect their people and provide a safe and healthy working environment. They should identify the potential health and safety risks present in their workplace and take appropriate action to keep their workers free from harm. Occupational safety focuses on potential safety hazards that can cause injury. Occupational health, on the other hand, looks at potential health issues such as occupational medicine, occupational hygiene, and primary health care, including the well-being of workers.

Organisations need to manage multiple aspects of their operations that require them to comply with different sets of standards such as quality, health and safety, and environment. As the ISO standards become more widely accepted, well-established organisations tend to simultaneously implement a number of management-system standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001.

Considering this, ISO decided to develop their standards using a structure called Annex SL (renamed Annex L in the 2019 edition), which consists of ten category clauses to assist with the integration of these management systems. New versions of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, which follow the new structure, were published in 2015. However, OHSAS 18001 has been superseded by ISO 45001, published in 2018. ISO 45001 is an internationally accepted framework to manage health and safety in the workplace, conforming to ISO’s Annex L, and it follows the same high-level structure as other international standards.

For organisations that want to implement an OHS management system (OHSMS) based on the ISO 45001:2018 standard but are not familiar with its structure and definitions, it often takes a significant amount of resources to understand the requirements of the standard and plan their implementation. This book provides guidance in establishing an OHSMS linked to the requirements of ISO 45001:2018. It aims to explain all the requirements of ISO 45001:2018 clause by clause to provide guidance to:

• Organisations preparing for ISO 45001:2018 implementation
• Individuals who want to build a career in OHS
• Health and safety practitioners and managers who want to improve their OHS performance
• OHS consultants who prepare their clients for ISO 45001:2018 certification audits
• Internal and external auditors who audit OHSMS

In addition to the requirements of the standard, this book includes industry best practices, methods, and techniques to address these requirements. While clarifying each requirement of the standard, it also discusses the steps needed to achieve the requirement, areas that auditors may check, and mandatory or voluntary documents that may be maintained or retained to demonstrate conformity with the requirement.

However, the reader should bear in mind that approaches to address ISO 45001 are not limited to the ones explained in this book. OHS is a wide-ranging subject with much research regularly being published. Interested parties should therefore investigate and research other methodologies to find the most suitable approaches for their organisation.

Chapter 2 Understanding the Basics

DOI: 10.4324/9781003266532-2

2.1 What Is ISO 45001?

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) in an international standards setting body. Founded in 1947 as an independent, nongovernmental organisation, ISO is the largest standards organisation with more than 160 members. Each member belongs to the national body that represents standardisation in their country. Through its members, ISO brings together experts to share knowledge and develop standards to provide solutions to industrial and commercial challenges (ISO, 2021).

ISO 45001, introduced in March 2018, is part of the ISO 45000 family of standards. ISO 45000 standards guide organisations towards improving workers’ health and safety in the workplace. Similar to other ISO family standards, ISO 45000 has one auditable standard, which is ISO 45001. ISO 45001 is an internationally recognised standard that sets the requirements for creating, implementing, maintaining, and improving OHSMS. The OHSMS is a proactive framework that assists organ-isations to protect people from occupational injuries and ill health. It is intended to be used by organisations, irrespective of their size and industry.

ISO has categorised management system standards into ‘type A’ and ‘type B.’ Type A standards contain requirements against which an organisation can claim conformance, whereas type B standards do not specify requirements but usually offer definitions, clarifications, and guidance on how the requirements can be fulfilled. ISO 45001 is the only type A standard in the ISO 45000 family. Type B standards published to date include:

• ISO 45002:2018—General guidelines for the implementation of ISO 45001:2018
• ISO 45003:2021—Guidelines for managing psychological risks at work
• ISO 45005:2020—Guidelines for safe working during the COVID-19 pandemic

Organisations can only get certification for their management system against type A standards. Therefore, to be audited by a certification body (CB) for their OHSMS, organisations must follow the requirements of ISO 45001. However, they may use other standards in this family as a guide for their OHSMS implementation.

The following outcomes were considered by the ISO members when developing ISO 45001:2018:

• To enable organisations to provide a healthy and safe working environment by identifying and managing their risks and improving their OHS performance
• To be applicable and relevant to all types and sizes of organisations and industries, and to accommodate diverse geographical, cultural, and social conditions
• To specify the requirements of an effective OHSMS
• To enable organisations to demonstrate conformity with the requirements
• To be able to integrate with other management systems including Quality Management System ISO 9001 and Environmental Management System ISO 14001, among others

The intended outcomes of the OHSMS are to prevent work-related injury and ill health and to provide safe and healthy workplaces through the elimination of hazards and the minimisation of OHS risks. It provides the mechanisms to assist organisations to make their workplaces safer and healthier. Implementation of an OHSMS based on the ISO 45001 requirements can also assist organisations to better engage with their workers, create a culture of continual improvement, and improve the organisation’s credibility.

Moreover, there are other benefits involved in obtaining ISO 45001 certification. Many organisations invest in ISO certifications to become more competitive in their market and attract new customers and clients. Both private and public tenders often include criteria related to health and safety. Implementing a health and safety management system and being accredited by a third-party CB may be the difference between winning a tender or losing it to a competitor.

Organisations can also avoid financial losses caused by fines or delays due to incidents by implementing an effective OHSMS. “If you think safety is expensive, try an accident,” is a popular quote attributed to Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the EasyJet entrepreneur. Furthermore, ISO 45001-certified organ-isations often attract lower insurance premiums as they can demonstrate a strong commitment to protecting their workers.

ISO 45001 is based on the ‘plan-do-check-act’ (PDCA) methodology (see Figure 2.1) and provides a process-oriented approach for documenting and reviewing the structure, responsibilities, and documented information required to achieve effective health and safety management in an organisation. PDCA is the concept of a continual cycle, with the prime objective being to drive forward improvements. ISO 45001:2018 contains ten clauses as shown in Table 2.1.

Figure 2.1 PDCA concept on ISO 45001:2018.

Table 2.1 ISO 45001:2018 Clauses

Clause 1	Scope
Clause 2	Normative references
Clause 3	Terms and definitions
Clause 4	Context of the organisation
Clause 5	Leadership and worker participation
Clause 6	Planning
Clause 7	Support
Clause 8	Operation
Clause 9	Performance evaluation
Clause 10	Improvement

The first three clauses are introductory, and the remaining seven clauses define the requirements of the ISO 45001:2018 standard and will be evaluated by the certification auditors. Following is a brief introduction to these seven clauses. Each clause will then be discussed in detail in subsequent chapters.

Clause 4—Context of the organisation: This clause requires an organisation to identify internal and external factors that can affect its strategic objectives, and the needs and expectations of its interested parties, in order to implement an efficient OHSMS. It also defines requirements for determining the scope, as well as the need for establishment, implementation, maintenance, and continual improvement, of an OHSMS.

Clause 5—Leadership and worker participation: One of the main factors that determine the success or failure of an organisational improvement is the commitment of the leaders and workers to the improvement. This section tries to ensure the involvement of the top management as well as managerial and non-managerial workers to the implementation of the ISO standard. Top management needs to illustrate leadership and commitment with respect to the OHSMS by being accountable for the effectiveness of the OHSMS, promoting continual improvement, assigning roles and responsibilities, and communicating the OHS policy.

Clause 6—Planning: This clause defines requirements for addressing hazards, risks, opportunities, legal, and other requirements as well as OHS objectives and the planning needed to achieve them.

Clause 7—Support: To ensure that OHSMS is aligned with other activities of the business, organisations should verify that they have the right resources to achieve their intended outcome. These resources may include elements such as competent people, adequately documented information, and appropriate means of communication.

Clause 8—Operation: This clause is focused on establishing operational controls to eliminate the OHS hazards, the management of changes, and emergency preparedness and response.

Clause 9—Performance evaluation: Requirements in this clause underscore the importance of considering what, how, and when to measure the performance of the OHSMS and determine the elements that influence the effectiveness of the system. Once the processes are in place, organisations should determine mechanisms to monitor and measure the OHSMS performance with the involvement of top management.

Clause 10—Improvement: This clause describes the requirements needed to improve the company’s OHSMS over time by identifying issues and nonconformances, taking corrective actions to rectify these issues, and examining and eliminating the root causes of the nonconformances to avoid recurrence of the issues. Continual improvement is the sweetest outcome of any management system. It is a type of mindset that indicates, no matter how well you think your organisation performs, there are always areas for improvement.

2.2 Process for Gaining ISO 45001 Certification

To be ISO 45001 certified, organisations need to implement OHSMS conformance within the requirements of ISO 45001. Once the OHSMS is in place, organisations can contact a CB to conduct certification audits. The CB will assign a certification auditor (or team of auditors) to verify the organisation’s conformance against the ISO 45001:2018 requirements through certification audits. ISO 45001 certification verifies that the organisation has estab...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Understanding the Basics
• 3 Terms and Definitions
• 4 Context of the Organisation
• 5 Leadership and Worker Participation
• 6 Planning
• 7 Support
• 8 Operation
• 9 Performance Evaluation
• 10 Improvement
• Appendices
• References
• Index