What ISO 45001 Requires

ISO 45001 is the international standard for an occupational health and safety management system. Its stated intent is to provide safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health, and by proactively improving OH&S performance.

Three things it insists on

• Top management accountability. Responsibility cannot be delegated to an HSE adviser — the standard names top management explicitly.
• Worker participation and consultation. Workers and, where they exist, their representatives must be involved in hazard identification, incident investigation and decisions about controls.
• Risk and opportunity. Not just hazards at the task level but the organisational risks that shape them: resourcing, change, procurement, contractors.

Health as well as safety

The standard covers ill health as squarely as injury. Noise, vibration, hazardous substances, ergonomics, fatigue and psychosocial risk are all within scope, and an organisation that manages only the falls and the fingers is meeting half the requirement.

Certification demonstrates that a system exists and is being followed. It is not a certificate that nobody will be hurt.