ISO 45001 for Occupational Health and Safety Management: Publication of a new standard postponed until summer 2018:
The date of publication of ISO 45001 has again been postponed. It is not expected to be published before the summer of 2018. The ISO 45001 will supersede the OHSAS 18001 resulting for the first time in an ISO standard for occupational health and safety management. Since ISO 45001 is also to be organised according to the high-level structure just like ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 and in future also ISO 50001 (expected in 2019), an integration of different management systems will henceforth be much easier.
A revised draft of ISO 45001 was published in May 2017. Although some changes will probably be made, the basic requirements are already discernible. As is the case with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the identification and greater involvement of interested parties will be promoted. In occupational health and safety management, these are essentially the employees as well as external-company organizations. More attention is also to be given in future to social aspects. Chapter 6 “Planning” calls for the determination and assessment of risks and opportunities. The idea is for aspects that go beyond a simple consideration of hazards to be looked at more intensively. A further important innovation will be to consider occupational health and safety aspects when outsourcing company sectors and when acquiring and commissioning contractors. More attention is also to be given to employee skills.
