What is OHSAS 18001? Who is the audit for?What does it cover?

·         Who is the audit for?
The audit is designed for any workplace looking to demonstrate their commitment to legislative requirements and health and safety standards.

It helps organisations manage the risk of workplace accidents and ill health, and confirms that arrangements are in place to meet legal requirements. It can confirm that occupational health and safety systems and arrangements are designed to meet a recognised standard criteria.

What does it cover?
The audit reviews the status of your organisation's occupational health and safety management system against defined requirements. This will be undertaken via document review, interviews with key personnel and an inspection of your organisation's premises. This process will include sampling of operational activities to ensure effective implementation of the health and safety management system. - See more at: https://www.britsafe.org/audit-and-consultancy/ohsas-safety-audit#sthash.K45Cy0ct.dpuf

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·          What is OHSAS 18001?

·         OHSAS 18001:2007 is an internationally recognized occupational health and safety management system developed to match the demand for a recognizable standard against which assessing and certifying the management system.

·         The standard can be applied to all business and operational activities and requires also the compliance with all applicable regulatory framework.

·         OHSAS 18001 is risk management oriented and aims to allow organizations to proactively manage their processes in order to minimize health and safety risks.

·         This standard does not establish OH&S performance criteria, nor does it provide detailed specifications for the design of an OHSAS management system but requires the organization to:

·         r establish its own safety policy and objectives

·         r identify hazards and risks

·         r evaluate risks likelihood and impact

·         r verify the compliance with applicable rules

·         r plan and deploy suitable countermeasures to prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities

·         r monitor and improve performances

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·          What are the key features of OHSAS 18001:2007?

·         r Great emphasis placed on "Health"

·         r Alignment with ISO 14001:2004 throughout the standard to facilitate integration.

·         r Compatibility with ISO 9001:2000.

·         r Reference to PDCA cycle

·         r "Evaluation of Compliance" requested as per ISO 14001:2004.

·         r People involvement in establishing the system and investigation of incidents.

·         r Suitability for management system certification

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·         Who created this standard?

·         OHSAS 18001 has been developed by a working group lead by BSI and several leading national standards bodies, certification bodies, and professionals.

·         Can the OHSAS 18001 standard be integrated with other management systems?

·         OHSAS 18001 has been developed to ensure the compatibility with the ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental) management systems standards, in order to facilitate the integration of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems by organizations, should they wish to do so.

·         The overall structure of the standard is similar to other relevant standard and many key requirements are common to all systems (e.g. policy, objectives, document control, internal auditing, management review, corrective and preventive actions)

Such integrated standardization approach allows certification bodies to provide organizations with Integrated Management System certification including all the three major standards for Quality, Environment, Health and Safety.

Who does the OHSAS 18001 standard apply to?

The OHSAS Standard applies to any organization that wishes to:

r Support and promote good OH&S prctices

r Minimize safety risks in the work environment

r Ensure the proper deployment of its OH&S policy and the achievement of objectives

r Introduce a common language for health and safety within the organization

r Establish, deploy, monitor and improve the OH&S management system

r Demonstrate OHSAS conformance to Stakeholders

r Achieving the OH&S management system certification by a third party certification body

The OHSAS 18001 effective implementation requires a clear management structure with clearly defined authority and responsibility, measurable objectives for improvement, a systematic approach to risk assessment and measurable results. This includes the monitoring of health and safety management failures, auditing of performance and review of policies and objectives.

What are the benefits from implementing OHSAS 18001?

r Improving awareness and control of workplace hazards and risks

r Facilitating the reduction in the number and severity of work-related accidents and illness, lost time incidents and injuries

r Improving employee health and safety and people satisfaction

r Leading to compliance with legal and regulatory requirements,

r Reducing risks of litigations and penalties

r Establishing a framework for effective risk management

r Reducing insurance premiums and other unexpected costs related to healthcare

r Improving productivity, people satisfaction and retention

r Increasing ability to attract the best new talent.

r Reducing operating costs - by decreasing down-time through incidents and ill health

r Reducing costs associated with legal fees and compensation

r Improving the company image through independent management system certification

How to get OHSAS 18001 certification?

The management certification process follows the following steps:

r Application for registration

r Initial Certification Audit to verify the compliance with OHSAS 18001 requirement. Such audit consist of Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits

r Certification granting by the Certification Body and maintained by the Organization.

r Surveillance Audit to confirm the maintenance of compliance with the requirements

r Re-certification audit after three years.

OHSAS Initial Certification Process

·         The Initial Certification Process is similar to that of ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 and consists of two different audits.

Stage 1- the purpose of this visit is to determine the organization’s readiness for a full assessment. The assessor will:

r Audit the organization’s management system documentation

r confirm that the OH&S management system conforms to the requirements of the standard

r confirm its implementation status

r confirm the scope of certification

r check legislative compliance

r evaluate if the internal audits and management review are being planned and performed and that the management system implementation is ready for Stage 2 Audit

r produce a report that identifies any non-compliance or potential for non-compliance and agree a corrective action plan if required

r produce an audit plan and confirm a date for the Stage 2 assessment visit

Stage 2 – this Audit shall take place at site and aim to confirm if the management system complies with the requirements of OHSAS 18001 and the internal documentation.

The Auditor shall verify:

r the conformity to all requirements of the applicable management system standard or other normative document

r performance monitoring, measuring, reporting and reviewing against key performance objectives and targets (consistent with the expectations in the applicable management system standard or other normative document)

r the management system and performance as regards legal compliance

r the effective implementation of the risk management approach

r the operational control of the processes

r the internal auditing and management review

The auditor shall

r report any non-compliances or potential for non-compliance

r produce a surveillance plan and confirm a date for the first surveillance visit

If the Auditor identifies any critical or major non-conformance, the organization cannot be certified until corrective action is taken and verified.

What are the requirements of OHSAS 18001?

The following is the index of OHSAS 18001:2007 Requirements:

4.1 General Requirements

4.2 OHSAS policy

4.3 Planning requirements

4.3.1 Hazard identification, risk assessment and determining controls

4.3.2 Legal and other requirements

4.3.3 Objectives and programme(s)

·         4.4 Implementation and operation requirements

4.4.1 Establishing resource, roles, responsibility, accountability and authority

4.4.2 Competence, training and awareness

4.4.3 Communication, participation and consultation

4.4.3.1 Establishing OH&S communication procedures

4.4.3.2 Establishing Participation and consultation procedures

4.3.4 Documentation for OH&S management system

4.4.5 Control of documents

4.4.6 Operational control

4.4.7 Emergency preparedness and response

4.5 Checking

4.5.1 Performance Measurement and monitoring

4.5.2 Evaluation of compliance

4.5.3 Incident investigation, non conformity, corrective action and preventive action

4.5.3.1 Incident investigation

4.5.3.2 Non conformity, corrective action and preventive action

4.5.4 Control of records

4.5.5 Internal Audit

4.6 Management review