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| Home > Articles > Management system of occupational Health and Safety |
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Management system of occupational Health and Safety |
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This clause states that "where deficiencies are found, root causes should be identified and corrective action taken". The BS standard provides a detailed explanation on ways that organisations can develop OHSMS that will conform to the standard. Annexure A provides a cross-index of the BS 8800 elements and ISO 9001:1994. Other annexures are - Organising, Planning and Implementing, Risk Assessment, Measuring Performance, and Auditing. While BS 8800 is explicit on the requirement of root cause analysis, the assessment procedures and techniques associated with the AIHA OHSMS imply the need for root cause analysis, which brings in a fair degree of flexibility for stage-wise implementation.
OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18001
For a number of years there has been a demand for a certification scheme for occupational health and safety, and this intensified with the publication of BS 8800 and AIHA guidance document on OHSMS. While BS 8800 and AIHA documents offer guidance on implementing an OHS management system, these are not intended for certification purposes. Certification offers independent verification that an organisation has taken all reasonable measures to minimise the risk and prevent accidents. While the present position suggests that the ISO may not pursue an international standard on OHS, indications are that the International Labour Organisation (ILO, Geneva) takes the initiative to bring out consensus guidelines on health and safety implementation (ILO 2001). The new International Standards (ISO 9001:2000) has been aligned with ISO 14001:1996, however, it does not include requirements, particularly to environmental management and occupational health and safety management. The ISO standard recognises that an organisation may align or integrate its own QMS with related management system requirements. The present suspended situation prompted many certification bodies to develop their schemes, based on the principles laid down by BS 8800 and the AIHA document.
The worldwide spurt of certification activity by different certification bodies obviously led to inevitable irregularities between the schemes. To obviate the irregular and undesirable developments, the Standard for Certification of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Management System has been developed by an association of national standards bodies, certification bodies and special consultants. This standard -- Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Specification, OHSAS 18001 was officially released in April 1999. The OHSAS 18001 Series unifies existing schemes, creates an auditable standard and provides a vehicle to put emphasis on CEN, ISO and ILO into developing an international standard. The new standard is divided into two sections :
1 OHSAS 18001 is the specification against which certification is awarded. OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with the ISO 9001:1994 (Quality) and ISO 14001:1996 (Environmental) management system standards in order to facilitate the integration of quality, environmental and OHS management systems in organisations.
2 An accompanying publication, OHSAS 18002 Guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001, provides guidance on implementing an occupational health and safety management system and corresponds directly to the specification. The standards are likely to be supplemented by a guide for auditors and auditors training scheme.
OHSMS Certification Scheme
- Implementing the management system at various levels of OHS maturity.
- Demonstrating compliance with applicable OHS legislation and regulations, with a commitment to continuous improvement.
As mentioned, the specifications used for OHSMS certification are OHSAS 18001. As in the case of ISO 14001, this contains specified requirements, which consist of the following basic sections :
- Occupational Health and Safety Policy
- Planning
- Implementation and Operation
- Checking and Corrective Action
- Management Review
The OHSMS benefits
OHS management calls for a long-term strategy in creating organisation-wide health and safety awareness and promoting safe work practices, thus leading to better workplace standards for the organisations functions and activities. With the implementation of OHSMS, the organisations can reap several benefits as given below :
- Improved marketability and enhanced client confidence in providing a safe working environment.
- Complementing the ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environmental) management system and allowing for future integration of the systems to address quality, safety, environment and other issues in the business process of the organisation.
- Higher operational productivity through reduced work related accidents, minimisation of loss of manpower and time, and obvious intangible benefits of health and well being of the workers.
The certification process
Pre-audit review
Under the OHSMS Certification Scheme, the objective of the pre-audit review is to ensure that the scope of analysis covering the entire OHSMS is conducted. Upon receipt of the application for pre-audit review, the certification body will conduct a document review and an optional site visit to focus on the planning aspect of the OHSMS. It is essential that the organization shall reflect the scope of certification they seek prior to the audits conducted. Following completion of the pre-audit review, the organisation undertakes necessary corrections in the system, as reported by the certification body. Once the follow-up actions have been executed, the auditor agency proceeds to the application for OHSMS Audit.
OHSMS audit
The organisation shall re-submit its revised occupational health and safety manuals and procedures. The objective of the audit is to confirm that the OHSMS of the organisation conforms to all requirements of the OHSAS 18001. It is a minimum requirement that the organisation undertakes one internal audit and management review prior to the audit. During the audit, nonconformity and/or observation reports may be issued, which should be clearly understood by the applicant organisation. In case of major nonconformities identified during the audit, the organisation will be required to go through a re-audit. All nonconformities shall be closed out within the specified time frame, based on which a recommendation for the award of the certificate may be made.
Surveillance audit
During the three years validity period of the certificate, at least three annual surveillance audits are to be conducted to ensure that the certified organisation continues to comply with the requirements of OHSAS 18001. The certification bodies are proposing that the organisations may make use of combined quality and OHSMS routine surveillance audits, which may optimise their time and money.
Continuous registration
The full reassessment for the renewal of a certificate shall be conducted every three years. The certification body shall schedule the reassessment about three months before expiry of the certificate. Upon successful completion of reassessment, the organisation will be issued a new certificate valid for a further three years.
Indian scenario
Indias OHS experience has embraced many influences within a brief span of time. It has been gradually modulated for coordinated development of functions of industries, thereby to resolve problems of adjusting technology to man and developing abilities of man with changing technological needs. Today, the OHS management receives considerably greater business significance in medium and large organisations, like steel, manufacturing, chemical, construction and mining. The rationale of OHS application has been viewed as :
- Regulatory issues - Registered public and private sector enterprises are subjected to compliance of regulatory instruments under the statutory jurisdiction of the Environment (Protection) Act, Factories Act and regulations concerned with employee health and safety. With the industrial growth tending to be dramatic in the coming years, the pressure of regulatory compliance on the employment and industries will call for well-defined occupational and environmental health guidelines.
- Economic issues - The global economic scenario has markedly influenced the traditional industries. With the changing world business needs due to various international trade agreements and constant in flow of trans-national corporations, the prudent national industries must have strategic business planning in managing risk, and enhancing health and safety at workplaces.
- High mechanisation and technological surges, thereby causing a dramatic change in the world of work are fast replacing o Technical issues - Dependence on traditional work patterns. Therefore, comprehensive analysis of technology application and human factors identify potential accident and safety risks. Integrating ergonomic and other control measures in planning and design help reduce capital cost, compensation and operational delays.
- Demographic trend - A steady transformation is taking place from the traditional agriculture-dependent nation to a non-agriculture dependent one. While the percentage of the total working population has changed marginally, the number of working population has increased tremendously. Today, we have a workforce of about 311 million with about 110 million in the industrial sector. During the next decade, a large number of younger populations will join the workforce and only a small segment (i.e., the older population) will go out of the workforce. The employment pattern of women from household to industry and other sectors is fast changing.
Social awareness - The changing scenario at work has brought about an impact on the lifestyle of people whereby the public has become sensitized by the environmental changes. Being a populous nation, with limited economic resources, countries like ours are face-to-face with stark realities of the challenges in the world of work in transforming hard occupational health problems to soft occupational health problems, which are gift of modern society. Their combined influence on health and the well being of people has much greater impact today than before.
Conclusion: Although industrial accident research in India is still in infancy, there is concern among the enlightened industrial organisations about the imbalance between technological demand and human characteristics leads to low technical utilisation, costly maintenance and frequent human failures. The voluntary industry initiatives are evident on their subscribing to the Bureau of Indian Standards and International Standards Organization for quality assurance, as well as occupational health and environmental management.
A change in attitude towards prevention and promotion of occupational health is visible. It has been seen that there is no treatment, which is effective against the potential hazards encountered at workplaces. The only treatment of value comprises education and training on the potential risks, and modification of work conditions, including engineering and administrative measures. Recent trends amply suggest the scope of national and international collaboration to forge a voluntary industry initiative on strategic OHS and environmental management, insurance planning, risk assessment, ergonomics and work design.
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| Posted : 10/21/2005 |
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