ISO 45001

ISO 45001 is an international standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS), providing practical solutions for worker safety. It can help create a global foundation of worker safety standards and inspections that can be used by all global supply chains, for all industries and cover contractors and subcontractors in every country that supply products into these supply chains.

History

ISO 45001 was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 165 national standards bodies. The standard was published in March 2018, replacing OHSAS 18001, which had been widely adopted alongside a number of other national standards.

Purpose

The purpose of ISO 45001 is to help organizations to improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions all over the world. It is intended to be applicable to any organization regardless of its size, type and nature.

Structure

ISO 45001 follows the High Level Structure of other ISO standards, such as ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015, which makes integration of these standards much easier. It includes the following main clauses:

• Context of the organization
• Leadership
• Planning
• Support
• Operation
• Performance evaluation
• Improvement

Implementation

Implementing ISO 45001 involves developing a management system that addresses the organization's own context, needs and expectations. It requires a clear management structure with defined authority and responsibility, and involves the participation of workers in decision-making processes.

Benefits

ISO 45001 can provide a number of benefits to an organization such as:

• Increased organizational resilience through proactive risk prevention, innovation and continual improvement
• Strengthening of legal and regulatory compliance whilst reducing business losses
• Demonstrating brand responsibility by committing to safe, healthy and sustainable work

See also

• ISO 9001
• ISO 14001
• Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems