ISO 45001:2018 - Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems

What is ISO 45001?

ISO 45001:2018 specifies requirements for an Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS), and gives guidance for its use, to enable organizations to provide safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health, as well as by proactively improving its OH&S performance.

ISO 45001:2018 is applicable to any organization that wishes to establish, implement and maintain an Occupational Health and Safety Management System to improve occupational health and safety, eliminate hazards and minimize OH&S risks (including system deficiencies), take advantage of OH&S opportunities, and address OH&S management system nonconformities associated with its activities.

The ISO 45001:2018 is an internationally recognized standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management System designed to enable organizations to control risks and improve performance in the area of Occupational Health and Safety. ISO 45001:2018 places a proactive and preventative emphasis on risk-control factors by identifying and assessing the likelihood and severity of hazards in the workplace.

Benefits of ISO 45001 Certification

ISO 45001 specifies requirements which enable organizations to provide safe and healthy workplaces, which in turn brings many benefits where some benefits are mentioned below:
  • Improved Employee Safety
  • Increased Customer Satisfaction
  • Reduced Operating Costs
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Increased Focus on Risks
  • Greater Legal Compliance
  • Gain Competitive Advantage
  • Improved stakeholder relationships
  • International Recognition

Journey to Certification

ISO 45001 Certification is a 3rd party audit performed by MQA, during the audit we will verify that your organization is following the requirements of ISO 45001, if received positive results then we will issue an ISO 45001 certificate. This certification is then maintained through annual surveillance audits by MQA, with re-certification of the ISO 45001 Certification after three years. See below cycle to know how you can get started on the road to certification:

MQA Certification Cycle

Year 1
Step 1.1 (Initial Application)
  • Client request a quotation.
  • MQA will assess Client’s requirements.
  • MQA will share proposal with client.
  • Client signed the 3-year Certification Contract with MQA.
Step 1.2 (Certification Audit)
  • MQA will conduct:
    1. Gap Assessment (Readiness Review)
    2. Stage-1 Audit (Documentation Review)
    3. Stage-2 Audit (Implementation Review)
  • MQA Auditor will share the audit reports to MQA’s Certification Decision Committee.
Step 1.3 (Certificate Management)
  • If certification decision is positive, then certificate is issued by MQA.
  • If certification decision is negative, then verification audit is planned by MQA.
  • Client will receive the MQA Portal access to:
    1. View the Audit Reports.
    2. Download the ISO Certificate.
    3. Review & Respond to Audit Findings, etc.
Year 2 & 3
Step 2.1 (Renewal Request)
  • MQA request for renewal.
  • Client agreed for Surveillance Audit.
Step 2.2 (Surveillance Audit)
  • MQA will conduct Surveillance Audit
  • MQA Auditor will share the audit reports to MQA’s Certificate Decision Committee.
Step 2.3 (Certificate Management)
  • If no critical non-conformity found, then certificate is renewed by MQA.
  • If any critical nonconformity found, then verification audit is planned by MQA.
  • Client have the MQA Portal access to:
    1. View the Audit Reports.
    2. Download the ISO Certificate.
    3. Review & Respond to Audit Findings, etc.

Why OHSAS 18001 upgraded to ISO 45001?

OHSAS 18001:2007 was a British Standard (BS) and not updated since 2007 also it is not aligned with Annex SL which is the basis of ISO standards like 9001:2015 and 14001:2015 so in October 2013, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the project proposal to develop the ISO 45001 standard, an ISO analogue to the OHSAS 18000 standards.

ISO 45001 standard has published in March, 2018 and has been accepted as an official standard as a replacement of OHSAS 18001 certification so if you have certification to OHSAS 18001 you need to migrate to ISO 45001 to maintain the validity of the certification and organizations will have a three year period to upgrade to ISO 45001 i.e. till March, 2021 but due to widespread business impacts from the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) has extended the deadline for migration to ISO 45001 by six months from the original timeline, to September 11, 2021.

MQA help you to certify your organization to ISO 45001:2018

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