GB/T 45001-2020 "Occupational Health and Safety Management System Requirements and Guidelines for Use" was approved and released by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Standardization Administration, and will be officially implemented on March 6, 2020. This standard is equivalent to adopting the international standard ISO 45001:2018 of the same name. It was drafted and completed by the China National Institute of Standardization with the participation of 24 units.

 

1. The origin and evolution of GB/T 45001

Speaking of GB/T 45001, it is inevitable to talk about ISO 45001, OHSAS 18001 and GB/T 28001.

The successful launch of ISO 45001 can be described as tortuous and long. Encouraged by the implementation and great success of ISO 9001 (standard for quality management systems) and ISO 14001 (standard for environmental management systems), as early as 1994, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) received a proposal for the development of international standards for occupational health and safety management systems. proposal. However, after more than two years of special research by the task force and subsequent voting at the ISO membership meeting in 1997, the proposal was not passed and was ultimately stillborn.

Despite this, some ISO member countries, led by the British Standardization Institute (BSI), insist on continuing to promote the standardization process of occupational health and safety management systems. They set up another stove and established the OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) technical alliance with BSI as the secretariat and composed of 13 organizations. Management System Specifications" and OHSAS 18002:2000 "Guidelines for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems" (ie OHSAS 18000 Occupational Health and Safety Management System Series Standards). In 2007 and 2008, OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18002 were further revised and republished. The release of the OHSAS 18000 series of standards has opened a precedent for the standardization of occupational health and safety management systems, and has been widely adopted by countries around the world.

my country is no exception. After the 1st edition of OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18002 was released, GB/T 28001-2001 "Occupational Health and Safety Management System Specifications" and GB/T 28002-2002 "Occupational Health and Safety Management System Specifications" and GB/T 28002-2002 "Occupational Health and Safety Management System Specifications" were adopted, formulated and released. Management Systems Guide. With the revision and reissue of OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18002, GB/T 28001 and GB/T 28002 were also revised and reissued in 2011.

Encouraged by the great success of the OHSAS 18000 series of standards for more than ten years, in 2013, ISO successfully passed the second standard proposal voting, and finally started the process of formulating international standards for occupational health and safety management systems. In 2018, ISO successfully developed and published ISO 45001. So far, the international standards of ISO's three major management systems have finally been successfully formulated, and occupational health and safety management has finally been identified by ISO as an important international standardization technical field.

Following the release of ISO 45001, my country immediately adopted ISO 45001 and revised and replaced GB/T 28001 and GB/T 28002, and released GB/T 45001 in 2020.

2. Systematically protect the occupational health and safety of enterprises

The reason why GB/T 45001 is called an important weapon to protect the safety of production is that it adopts systematic risk management thinking and advanced management system technology.

Risk-based thinking is a new common feature of ISO management system standards. Since in the occupational health and safety management system, the identification of hazards and risk assessment itself are a kind of thinking based on the principle of risk management, therefore, in GB/T 45001, the thinking based on risk management has received more attention and improvement, such as : To evaluate not only risks, but also opportunities; not only to evaluate occupational health and safety risks, but also to evaluate other risks of occupational health and safety management systems; to evaluate not only occupational health and safety opportunities, but also other opportunities of occupational health and safety management systems.

GB/T 45001 takes hazard identification and risk assessment as the core line, and runs it throughout the occupational health and safety management system. It provides a systematic technical framework for enterprises to manage their OH&S risks and opportunities by taking effective preventive and protective measures to eliminate hazards and minimize OH&S risks to prevent work-related hazards to workers injury and damage to health and provide a healthy and safe workplace.

This standard adopts the high-level structure of ISO general management system standards and is compatible with other standards that adopt this high-level structure, which makes the occupational health and safety management system established by enterprises adopting this standard more easily compatible with other management systems of enterprises (such as quality and environmental management system, etc.) for integration or integration.

The OH&S management system approach adopted by this standard is an advanced one based on the concept of "Plan-Do-Check-Amend (PDCA)". The PDCA concept is an iterative process that can be used by businesses to achieve continuous improvement and can be applied to a management system and each of its individual elements. The relationship between the technical framework of the standard and the PDCA concept is shown in Figure 1 below.

Note: The numbers in brackets refer to the corresponding clause numbers in this standard.

Figure 1 The relationship between the standard technical framework and the PDCA concept

The full text of the standard is divided into 10 chapters: Chapters 1 to 3 describe the scope, normative references, terms and definitions applicable to the standard, and Chapters 4 to 10 contain requirements that can be used to evaluate compliance with the standard . The standard also contains two appendices: Appendix A provides explanatory information about the requirements; Appendix NA gives the correspondence between the standard and GB/T 28001-2011.

3. Provide certification standards for occupational health and safety management

GB/T 45001 is an important management system certification standard. It is suitable for organizations of any size, type and activity.

This standard contains requirements that organizations can use to implement an OH&S management system and conduct compliance assessments. Organizations wishing to demonstrate compliance with the standard can do so by:

- carry out self-assessments and declarations;

— seek confirmation of its conformity by relevant parties of the organization (e.g. customers);

— seek confirmation of its self-declaration by an external body of the organization;

- Seek certification or registration of its OH&S management system by an external organization.

This standard can be used in whole or in part to systematically improve occupational health and safety management. However, a statement of compliance with this standard can only be accepted if all the requirements of the standard are included in the organization's OH&S management system and are fully met.

So far, a total of 178,432 organizations in my country have obtained 183,435 occupational health and safety management system certifications.

4. Issues that need to be paid attention to in the implementation of the standard

Although the practice of occupational health and safety management system in my country has achieved certain results in the past 20 years, there are still many problems. The reasons are not only the imperfection of the standard itself, but also the lack of awareness and understanding of the standard and the rigid application of the standard; there are both common problems in the practice of all management systems, and there are specific inherent diseases in the field of occupational health and safety. To this end, when implementing GB/T 45001, organizations should pay special attention to the following aspects:

1. "Structural Elements" and "Systems Thinking". This is the common technology used by all management system standards, and it is also the starting point and technical basis for accurately understanding and understanding management system standards. In the practice of my country's management system, the phenomenon of one-sided emphasis on "structural elements" and neglect of "systematic thinking" is relatively common. Especially in the field of occupational health and safety management, it is deeply influenced by traditional safety production management concepts and habits in the era of planned economy.

2. "Basics of the rule of law" and "programmed management". The rule of law is the basis for determining the effectiveness of all management system practices, both outside and within the organization. The lack of the rule of law often makes the system a mere formality or fails to play its due role. Procedural management is a management method commonly used in management systems, which can improve the standardization, coordination and efficiency of work. In the field of occupational health and safety management, procedural management is particularly important, which can not only ensure occupational health and safety, but also ensure the coordination and compatibility of occupational health and safety management with the daily work of the organization.

3. Based on risk characteristics and combined with the actual situation of the organization. When implementing GB/T 45001, the organization should first consider the characteristics of occupational health and safety risks and its own actuality (including the nature and size of the organization, etc.) that it faces or may face at present and in the future. Only in this way can an organization establish an occupational health and safety management system that meets its actual needs in a targeted manner, and ensure that the system can effectively prevent and control the organization's occupational health and safety risks.

 

This article or report is from Quality and Certification