Two Training courses with a total of 35 participants from 28 NAB (national Accreditation Bodies) have been organized in Levallois-Perret (France) by the EA Certification Committee, to highlight and share a common understanding on the new standard ISO 45001.

On 12th March, ISO published ISO 45001 Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use that provides a framework for organizations to improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions by providing an effective set of processes. Designed to help organizations of all sizes and industries, ISO 45001 is expected to reduce workplace injuries and ill-health around the world by providing guidance for improving worker safety in countries around the world.

To support the implementation of this new standard, EA decided to organize two Training courses, facilitated by Marco Cerri, from ACCREDIA (Italy) and Leonardo Omodeo-Zorini from IIOC (EA recognized stakeholder).

After an introduction on ISO 45001: 2018 and IAF MD22: 2018 Application of ISO/IEC 17021-1 for the Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OH and SMS), discussions focused on IAF MD21: 2018 Requirements for the Migration to ISO 45001:2018 from OHSAS 18001:2007 and a group work session was organized to analyze many case studies and report about the relevance and impact of these changes on the EA assessments.

Our training objectives set up at the beginning of the two Training courses have been successfully met, i.e. introduction of the new ISO 45001:2018 requirements compared with OHSAS 18001:2007 and to promote a harmonized approach and homogeneous application of the new standard among NAB’s and CB’s in relation to the accreditation rules for OH&SMS defined in the new IAF MD’s documents (22 and 21).
Furthermore, within the Training courses framework, many cases studies and as well as questions posed during the sessions, have been thoroughly discussed among the delegates with a very rich exchange of views and experiences. All delegates have expressed their appreciation about how the courses was prepared and conducted. Delegates have outlined the importance of this course set-up and they believe important to create opportunities to meet more frequently to discuss these types of topics.
We strongly believe that this standard is expected to contribute to enhance the management of safety of the workers and the occupational health at the workplaces.
We also want to thank the EA Secretariat and the Buro Club for the support in the organization of this two Training courses”. Jointly declared by Marco Cerri and Leonardo Omodeo-Zorini at the conclusion of this positive experience.

Accreditation provides a globally-recognized tool to not only assess and control risks of the internal operation of businesses, but also the products and services that they place on the market. In this way, Regulators, purchasers and employees can demonstrate confidence that accreditation delivers a safer world. Accredited certification to this standard will help businesses improve its ability to respond to regulatory compliance issues, reduce disruption costs, and reduce the cost of insurance premiums.