LEGISLATION FEBRUARY 2019
MORE THAN A NAME
Companies using the OHSAS
18001 health and safety
standard have until 2021
to change to the new ISO
45001 – and the changes
are more than skin-deep
BY MALCOLM WHEATLEY
In July 2018, Lancashire-based Carrington
Textiles, one of Europe’s largest workwear
manufacturers, adopted occupational health
and safety standard OHSAS 18001. Dating
back to 1999 and updated in 2007 to provide
a greater emphasis on workplace health – as
opposed to workplace safety – the OHSAS 18001
standard has proved popular with employers,
credited with reducing both accident rates and
employee sickness levels.
But OHSAS 18001 won’t be in place for
much longer at Carrington. By October 2019,
its adoption by the firm will be history –
replaced by new occupational health and
safety standard ISO 45001, explains group
safety, health, environment and quality
manager Andrew Meacher.
“We see OHSAS 18001 as putting in a
baseline,” he notes. “It was a starting point,
a way of establishing a foundation for us to
build upon. But right from the start, the plan
has been to go for ISO 45001.”
It’s a journey that many more manufacturers
will soon be undertaking. As its full name – BS
OHSAS 18001 – makes clear, OHSAS 18001 is a
purely British standard. ISO 45001, published
by the Geneva-based
international standards body
the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO),
is an international standard,
adopted by a wide range
of countries as its national
standard on occupational
health and safety.
Accordingly, OHSAS
18001 is being phased out,
and manufacturers currently
audited and certified to OHSAS
18001 will need to move to ISO
45001 by 12 March 2021.
A broader focus
The difference between the
two standards is more than just
a question of nomenclature,
says Meacher. ISO 45001 has
a broader focus than OHSAS
18001, with a new emphasis
on leadership, employee
engagement, the supply chain,
and contractors.
“OHSAS 18001 was
operationally-led, while ISO
45001 is more strategic, with
a greater leadership dimension
and a focus on driving health
and safety improvements by
achieving a greater engagement
throughout the business,” he
explains. “It’s going to require
a lot more communication and
participation, but the reward
will be improvements in our
whole approach to workplace
health and safety. And already,
as we prepare for ISO 45001,
we’re seeing some of those
improvements happen. We’ve
now got a brand new award
system in place for employees
to make health- and safetyrelated
suggestions, with over
350 received so far – that’s
around 25-30 potential health
and safety improvements a
month, right across the site.”
And the impact of such
improvements should not be
under-estimated, say health
and safety professionals.
Although British workplaces
are among the safest in the
world, the International Labour
Organisation estimates that
globally, an almost-incredible
7,600 people die each day
from work-related accidents
or diseases. That’s around 2.8
million potentially avoidable
deaths a year.
While workplace accidents
play their part in this grim
statistic, especially in the third
world where safety standards
can be very different from
OHSAS 18001 is
being replaced
by the ISO 45001
standard by 2021
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