Occupational Health and Safety Compliance: Ensuring Workplace Safety

Ensuring Workplace Health and Safety Compliance with ISO 45001 and Other Safety Management Systems

ISO 45001 represents a significant evolution from its predecessor, OHSAS 18001, marking a substantial improvement in safety management systems (SMS). Whether or not your organization is officially certified, most safety management systems mandate that companies identify regulatory requirements and uphold compliance with their obligations, ensuring OHS compliance and workplace health and safety compliance. 

Notably, ISO 45001 and similar systems have a well-defined requirement for identifying and adhering to applicable regulations, standards, and other obligations, in accordance with OSHA guidelines. Article 6.1.3 of ISO 45001 succinctly outlines this requirement:

6.1.3 Determination of Legal Requirements and Other Requirements

The organization shall establish, implement, and maintain processes to:

• Determine and have access to up-to-date legal requirements and other requirements relevant to its hazards, OH&S risks, and OH&S management system, in alignment with workplace safety regulations and workplace health and safety compliance.

• Define how these legal requirements and other obligations apply to the organization and the communication procedures necessary, ensuring compliance with health standards at work.

• Incorporate these legal requirements and other obligations when establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving its OH&S management system.

The organization shall also maintain and retain documented information on its legal requirements and other obligations and ensure that it stays up-to-date to reflect any changes.

Complexities of OSH Compliance

Understanding that the typical jurisdiction imposes over 400 regulatory safety requirements and obligations, the complexity of OSH compliance becomes clear. When we consider the additional requirements embedded in company-specific documents, procedures, training manuals, and other safety-related materials, the number of OHS obligations can skyrocket to over 2,000 for an industrial site. This is compounded by the fact that more than 3% of regulations change annually, presenting a constant challenge to safety teams with limited resources.

Effectively managing these multifaceted obligations within medium to large companies necessitates an investment in a robust regulatory monitoring tool equipped with workflow functionality and action planning, such as safety audit tools. Nimonik stands ready to assist your organization in maintaining ISO 45001 compliance for legal requirements management.

How Nimonik helps you achieve Safety Regulatory Compliance

Nimonik Comprehensive Compliance platform helps organizations effectively manage compliance requirements. With Nimonik, you obtain:

1. Access to all occupational health and safety laws, regulations, standards and related information 
2. Tools to manage all your legal and other obligations in one location
3. Notifications when regulations and industry standards change
4. Risk-based assessments and audits to identify any gaps or corrective actions in your compliance
5. Ability to convert your obligations in regulations and documents into internal audits
6. Real-time compliance reports to identify issues, gaps and action items

Some sample Occupational Health and Safety regulations

• Production Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China(China)
• Industrial Safety and Health Act (Japan)

Sample Safety Compliance Checklists

• ISO 45001
• Risk Assessment And Preventive Actions In A Manufacturing Unit Checklist
• Construction Hazard Identification and Risk Checklist
• Weekly Inspection on Job Sites Checklist
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Self Inspection Checklist
• Heavy Vehicle Inspection Checklist
• Daily Vehicle Maintenance Checklist

Scope of Coverage

1.0 Safety Management

1.1 General Requirements

Suitability of employees for work (age, fitness, disability, pregnancy, etc., but not transient states such as fatigue or temporary impairment). Job modifications to ensure employees’ health/safety. This topic includes General Duty of Care; Rights and Responsibilities (includes refusal to work, work stoppage); Safety Management Systems (for managing employee health and safety); Health and Safety Representatives (includes joint health and safety committees); Recordkeeping and Documentation (general records and documents–for records and documents related to accidents and injuries, refer to the Accident/Illness Investigation, Recordkeeping, and Reporting topic); Incidents (general rules related to incidents (which can happen without injury); for accidents and injuries, refer to the Accident/Illness Investigation, Recordkeeping, and Reporting topic); Reporting (general reporting; for reporting related to accidents and injuries, refer to the Accident/Illness Investigation, Recordkeeping, and Reporting topic); Maintenance and Housekeeping (includes sweeping, cleaning, removing debris; in relation to the Occupational Health: Workplace Requirements topic, which is more about how the workplace is designed so that it is more sanitary (protecting employees from disease), this topic is about the process of keeping clean (allowing employees to move freely, etc.)); and Workplace Inspections and Enforcement (providing access and assistance; obstruction, retaliation not allowed; general penalties and fines).

1.2 Plans and Policies

Develop and implement safety plans and policies that align with regulatory requirements and organizational goals.

1.3 Information, Communication, and Training

Safety data sheets (to protect employees). Hazard communication programs. This topic includes Training and Qualifications (includes general requirements for certification, supervision); and Health and Safety Signs.

1.4 Risk Assessment and Risk Management Program

This topic includes Risk Assessment (includes process hazard analysis (hazard evaluation)); Action Plan and Risk Management; and Reporting.

1.5 Machinery and Work Equipment Safety

Machine guarding. No loose-fitting clothing. Operational controls. Preventing collisions with vehicles, crushing. Vehicles for transporting workers, and other equipment-specific rules for protecting the personal safety of workers who are driving (for vehicle operation to ensure public safety, use the Motor Vehicle and Other On-Road Operations topic). Work on boilers and with steam. Elevators.

1.6 Material Storage

Similar to Equipment related to material storage, such as racks, but not about the equipment. This topic is about how the material is stored, stacked, etc.

1.7 Special Hazard Environments

This topic includes Confined Spaces; Excavations, Trenches, Shafts, Tunnels; Working in or over Water (includes diving, boats, areas of danger to employees); High Voltage Work; and Working Alone (this topic concerns the nature of the work; the General Facility Design and Operation: Special Types of Facilities topic concerns the nature of the facility).

2.0 General Facility Design and Operation

2.1 Exit Routes and Doors

2.2 Stairs, Ladders, and Platforms

Including scaffolds and stages.

2.3 Electrical Safety

2.4 Potentially Explosive Atmospheres

2.5 Laboratory Safety

2.6 Special Types of Facilities

This topic includes Construction Sites; and Temporary or Isolated Facilities (which concerns the nature of the facility. The Safety Management: Special Hazard Environments topic concerns the nature of the work.

2.7 Construction Materials

Choice of materials to protect employees; for example, no plastic that would emit noxious fumes if burned.

3.0 Emergency Preparedness and Response

3.1 Emergency Planning

Emergency equipment (survival suits, etc.) for employees. Fire drills.

3.2 Fire Prevention and Response

This topic includes Fire Prevention; Evacuation; Fire Protection (fire suppression equipment such as fire extinguishers, standpipes, sprinklers; fire detection systems such as smoke alarms; employee alarm systems; design, installation, and maintenance of these systems); Fire Fighting (firefighters; fire brigades; requirements for persons fighting fires, rather than for fire suppression equipment such as fire extinguishers; PPE and training for firefighters); and Flammable and Combustible Materials (includes fuelling).

3.3 Major Accidents

In this topic the focus is on disasters at the facility or in the area.

4.0 Occupational Health

4.1 Accident/Illness Investigation, Recordkeeping, and Reporting

Reports and records after death or critical injury. Preservation of the scene.

4.2 First Aid

First aid kits, first aid training, qualified persons, emergency showers and eyewashes.

4.3 Workplace Requirements

This topic includes Ventilation; Temperature; Slip and Fall Prevention (“”fall”” here indicates a fall to the ground from someone who is already standing on the ground; for falls from heights, refer to the Fall Protection and Working at Heights topic; for potential falls caused by debris, refer to the Safety Management: General Requirements: topic); Lighting (for lighting of exit routes, refer to the Exit Routes and Doors topic); Sanitary Provisions (garbage receptacles, toilets, handwashing facilities, change rooms, shower facilities, vermin control, separation of eating areas, preventing food from being contaminated by workplace hazards, food for employees’ consumption, laundering work clothes); Drinking Water; Rest Areas; Workplace Violence, Pestering, Sexual Harassment; Workplace Stress; Work Hours and Worker Fatigue (for hours of work as it relates to wages, refer to the Industrial Relations and Human Resources topic; Impairment (Alcohol and Drug Use); and Smoking (includes any use or handling of tobacco, cannabis, or electronic smoking devices by employees; for sales of these substances or devices, or for use or handling by the general public, refer to the Controlled Substances topic).

4.4 Fall Protection and Working at Heights

Includes preventing tools and equipment from falling.

4.5 Personal Protective Equipment

This topic includes Personal Fall Protection Systems; Head and Eye Protection; Foot Protection; Respiratory Protection; Hand Protection; Hearing Protection; Electrical Protection; and High-Visibility Clothing.

4.6 Exposure Limits and Protection

This topic includes Chemical Agents; Carcinogens; Noise (for hearing protection, refer to the Personal Protective Equipment topic); Biological Agents; Vibrations; Asbestos; Lead; and Radon.

4.7 Medical Surveillance

4.8 Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation

This topic includes Ionizing Radiation; and Non-Ionizing Radiation (for devices that submit radio waves, refer to the Radio Communications topic if the purpose of the text is other than worker safety).

4.9 Ergonomics

This topic includes Manual Handling of Loads, Back Injury Prevention.