ISO 45001 vs OHSAS 18001

As you might know ISO 9001 certification will assure customers and suppliers that your business meets their needs, by having a framework in place that helps ensure consistent quality in the provision of goods and/or services.  Therefore, having a certified safety management system will improve the health, safety and welfare of your employees and give you demonstrable improvements in your Health & Safety performance. In this context you may have heard of OHSAS 18001 as well as ISO 45001 or ISO 45001 vs OHSAS18001

From September 2021 any organisations holding OHSAS 18001 will need to “transition” to ISO 45001 or they will lose their Health & Safety Certification.

What is OHSAS 18001?

OHSAS 18001, Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (officially BS OHSAS 18001), was a British Standard for occupational health and safety management systems. Compliance meant businesses could demonstrate that they had a system in place for occupational health and safety.

And ISO 45001?

ISO 45001 is the new international standard for occupational health and safety management replacing the OHSAS 18001 standard. BSI cancelled OHSAS 18001 to adopt ISO 45001, which was published in March 2018. This standard will show that a business has been certified for reducing workplace risks to improve employee safety.

 

The Benefits of ISO 45001

Here are some benefits of using the ISO 45001 framework:

  • Establish controls to ensure legal compliance
  • Increase Health and Safety of Occupational Health and Safety risks with employees
  • Enhance your Reputation and getting your business noticed by customers, who are concerned about their social responsibilities
  • Reduce Insurance Premiums
  • Improve Management of H&S Compliance Issues, reducing the overall costs of incidents and downtime
  • Better Manage Health and Safety Risks, which will help to either eliminate them or put controls in place to minimise their effects

In a nutshell: ISO 45001 is for organisations that are serious about improving employee safety, reducing workplace risks and creating better, safer working conditions.

The ISO 45001 standard is also very closely aligned to ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environment) making it easy to achieve and maintain an integrated management system.