ISO 45001

What is ISO 45001:2018?

ISO 45001 is the standard that replaced BS OHSAS 18001, the international standard for managing occupational health and safety in the workplace, including all aspects of risk management and legislative compliance. It focuses on worker health and safety, as well as specific product safety issues.

An occupational health and safety management system is a tool that allows the organization implementing it to properly manage and continuously monitor all activities and processes related to health and safety in the workplace, contributing to improving safety levels over time.

The OHSMS aims to prevent, control, and monitor risks, as well as continually improve performance in occupational health and safety.

KEY POINTS

ISO 45001:2018 certification is an advanced tool for managing occupational health and safety and is aligned with other business standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO/IEC 27001, which already help organizations manage this key risk as part of their business processes.

ISO 45001:2018 certification is not just a collection of regulations, but it certifies that the organization adopts a management system capable of developing and implementing an Occupational Health and Safety Policy.

In Italy, Legislative Decree 81/08 already provides mandatory procedures in terms of safety, but the ISO 45001:2018 certification, in addition to ensuring and guaranteeing compliance with these obligations, allows for the adoption of measures that can be improved over time thanks to a risk assessment and through planning of prevention measures. The safety management policy in fact assesses and manages risks, defines specific tasks and responsibilities, implements corrective and preventive actions, paying attention to communication and staff involvement.

ISO 45001:2018 certification is a challenging but necessary step in line with corporate ethics.

ADVANTAGES

An organization can gain numerous benefits from ISO 45001:2018 certification for its occupational health and safety management system, such as:

• Increased efficiency and performance through a review of production processes and organizational dynamics.
• Reduction of accidents, injuries, and occupational diseases and their related costs.
• Ongoing improvement of workers’ health and safety levels within the organization, promoting awareness towards prevention and protection aspects.
• Recognition for an organization of the effectiveness of its Organizational Model, management, and control system, leading to exemption from administrative liability for legal entities (as per Legislative Decree 231/01 and subsequent amendments), according to the provisions of Article 30 of Legislative Decree 81/2008 and its amendments.
• Recognition of economic incentives from relevant institutional bodies (INAIL), such as access to business support incentives (ISI Call) or tax reductions on insurance premiums (OT24 Form).