ISO 45001 – The Introduction
The new ISO 45001 Safety Standard has been accepted internationally and, if accepted in Australia and New Zealand, is set to replace the existing safety standards – AS/NZS 4801 and OHSAS 18001. On August 28th of October, Standards Australia closed the period for public comment. Since then, 45001 has been in the process of transition from an International Standard to also being AS/NZS approved. Standards Australia have set the deadline implementation deadline as “late 2018”.
What is this new standard? What does it do?
The ISO 45001 standard (and soon to be the AS/NZS 45001) sets a minimum standard of practice to protect employees worldwide in an effort to further minimize the occupational and workplace death and injury occurrences. Moreover, the standard encompasses the overall wellbeing of employees through mental health and physical to give a holistic view of how employers should be tending to staff. The overall objective is an improvement in everything from reduction of workplace incidents to even reduction of absenteeism – everyone should come to work and be safe at work.
Will it replace the 4801 and 18001 safety standards?
The benefits that have been outlined by ISO (see above) show how this new standard can improve not only safety but overall worker environments. It has been created as a combination and improvement of multiple standards that already exist – making it not only beneficial to your business but also conveying the idea that it should be relatively easy to implement if you are already certified in other ISO or AS/NZS standards.
Why do we need 45001?
The 4801 is an Australian and New Zealand standard; 18001 is a British standard. 45001 has been developed by ISO as an international standard. It adopts the high-level structure that underpins 9001 and 14001 making it easier for organisations to integrate their management systems.
How does it affect the Australian market?
Safety authorities in Australia and New Zealand have been carefully reviewing 45001 to check alignment with existing WHS statutory requirements. If accepted, it is expected that businesses currently certified in 4801 will have 3 years to migrate to 45001. Details of how this could work have yet to be released.
What does this mean for me?
If you’re looking to be certified in a safety standard, you can become AS/NZS 4801 or OHSAS 18001 certified by Certex now. Then you can migrate to the 45001 standard when it’s ready for the Australian and New Zealand market. If you’re already certified in one of the existing safety standards, we’ll make sure to keep our clients up-to-date on all changes and developments.
Certex has successfully transitioned all our 9001 and 14001 certified clients to their newest standard, so we’ve been through this process before. We have had great success working with our clients so nothing is left to the last minute!
If you have more questions or want to know how you can be certified, click here to contact us!