* The term "extensive draft outline" refers to titles of chapters to be considered in a future document and short references to the key elements to be dealt with in each of them.

This report analyzes the nature and content of 24 Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) Standards, Codes of Practice and Guidance Documents from 15 countries, and for the purpose of comparison, the International Standards ISO 14001:1996 on Environmental Management Systems, and a draft ISO Standard on Health, Safety and Environmental Management in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries, on which work was suspended in 1996.

The publishers of the documents are mainly national governments, state/provincial governments, national standards organisations and professional health and/or safety organisations. The documents themselves are either auditable standards, non-auditable standards, guidance documents or national/state/provincial legislation that contain OHSMS components.

The documents analyzed were generally strong in addressing traditional occupational health and safety management issues such as risk assessment, hazard evaluation and control, and training. However, there was a general weakness in areas often considered central to management-system approaches, such as management commitment, allocation of resources, continual improvement, integration with other systems and management processes of organisation, and management review. In addition, the coverage of health/medical surveillance and employee health programmes, and the manner in which employee participation is addressed, are also variable.

There is concern in IOHA, that the present situation where national, provincial/state, industry and consultancy developed OHSMS standards and guidance documents are being developed in many different parts of the world, is causing confusion and misunderstanding. Employers are often faced with competing systems, but are being denied the opportunity to have their OHS performance verified to an internationally recognised standard by an accredited conformance-assessment process.

Similarly, employees and other workers are being denied the opportunity of benefiting from the improvements in safety and health that are likely to result from such recognition, and the increased organisational focus on health and safety management necessary to achieve it.

The report concludes that an initiative by ILO in the area of OHSMS would be a significant contribution to this important and developing area of occupational health and safety. If successful, such an initiative could lead to widespread improvements in worker health, safety, and risk management. It would also accelerate the development of preventive, rather than reactive, measures to secure safe and healthy working conditions.

To have maximum effect, it is recommended that an ILO OHSMS document should:

1. be developed in consultation with the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO);

2. be expressed in terms of a "standard" against which employers can assess their own performance; and,

3. offer the opportunity to employers who implement the OHSMS, to obtain internationally recognised independent verification of their achievements.

The report also recommends an outline for such a document. The suggestion is made that this should be a two-tier approach to permit smaller, less complex organisations with lower health and safety risks, or those organisations introducing an OHSMS for the first time, to approach the subject in stages.

IOHA Report to ILO on an International OHSMS - Chapter I. [Title page]     [Table of Contents]     Chapters: I II III     Appendices: A B C D E F G     [Top]

Updated by AS. Approved by EC. Last update: 30.11.2004.