We recently participated on the leadership team for the United States Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) for the Development of the new ISO 45001 standard for Occupational Health and Safety management systems. 
The purpose of the week long meeting held at the ISN headquarters in Dallas, TX was to disposition over 800 comments on ISO/DIS 45001. The US TAG successfully dispositioned all of the major issues and many of the individual comments. Our role at this meeting was as co-chair of a subcommittee with Vic Toy for Clause 6 – Planning. Our section had 157 comments to review and decide how they would be addressed.
The meeting was attended by about 70 participants representing business, organized labor and government. Major issues addressed during the meeting included questions and comments like:
- Should organizations be required to use the hierarchy of controls when reducing risk?
- Does redundancy add clarity or confusion (frequent references to workers and worker representatives)?
- Should organizations be required to assess risk to the management system (other risks) or is this already addressed by the clauses of the standard?
- When must workers be asked for an opinion (consultation) and when must workers have authority to influence decisions made by management about risk control and other management system issues (participation)?
We have posted some articles about the following on our website blog if you are interested in learning more about these important issues.
- ISO 45001 – Hierarchy of Controls
- ISO 45001 – Other Risks and Other Opportunities
The public comment period in the USA is now open until April 1, 2016 so if you are in the USA and your organization would like to submit comments for consideration send me an email to tagosh@envcompsys.com and I can help you get the comments to the right place. Also please feel free to call or email with any questions about ISO/DIS 45001.