Each employee needs to know who is responsible for the various elements of the OH&S Management System to ensure a successful implementation. You should develop and make available to all employees a list of key personnel and their job descriptions, responsibilities, along with an organizational chart of key employees as they relate to the management system.
This should effectively define, document, and communicate the organizational structure of the OH&S Management System. Please note that this method is a suggestion, and other ways of meeting the requirement for organizational structure may be used.
Contents
Develop an organization chart and create job descriptions to satisfy the requirements:
There is no longer a requirement for appointment of Management Representative (MR), though the duties must still be undertaken but can be assigned to different personnel. Examples of objective evidence to verify implementation might include:
You should seek evidence that your organization’s personnel have not only been advised of their responsibilities and authorities, but also that they understand these in the context of the overall purpose of the management system. You should also ensure that Top management have assigned responsibility and authority for preserving the integrity of the organization’s OH&S Management System during changes.
Top management are responsible for business planning, development and the communication of our policies, health and safety management system planning, the establishment and deployment of policies, objectives, the provision of resources needed to implement and improve the management system, and for undertaking reviews.
Duties also include:
Top management accepts their legal and moral obligations to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, a safe and healthy working environment. Safe Systems of Work (SSoW) are implemented to protect workers, contractors, and anyone else who may be affected by our operations, from physical harm.
In pursuance of this duty, Top management should appoint safety specialists to discharge occupational health and safety duties within your operations.
The Health & Safety Manager should be responsible for ensuring that any identified occupational health and safety hazards are eliminated or reduced at source to As-Low-As-Reasonably-Practicable (ALARP).
The H&S manager should also ensure that your organization’s strategic development does not compromise the intended outcomes of the health and safety management system by:
The rights of Health and Safety Representatives are laid down in the 1977 Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations, which is part of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Health and Safety Representatives are nominated by Workers.
They must receive appropriate training which is refreshed accordingly. The Health & Safety Representatives are to be given access to the information necessary to fulfil their function. They must be notified of any visit by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/hsrepresentatives.htm
Health & Safety Representatives play a key role in workplace health and safety and work with Top management on health and safety issues by representing the health and safety interests of workers and contractors, and are responsible for the undertaking to following duties:
Health & Safety Advisors support the Health & Safety Manager to deliver the following:
All Managers and Supervisors should demonstrate their commitment to the development and improvement of the OH&S management system through the provision of necessary resources, through their involvement in the internal audit process and through their proactive involvement in continual improvement activities.
All Managers and Supervisors must provide direction and guidance to workers in safe work practices and compliance with the safety standards and site/job specific documentation, as well as:
All Managers and Supervisors are responsible for planning and controlling the health and safety management system processes within their area of responsibility, including the establishment and deployment of operational level objectives and the provision of resources needed to implement and improve these processes.
All workers and contractors must responsible for the safety of their work, that of their co-workers, and for the implementation of our policies and procedures applicable to the processes that they perform. Workers and contractors have the authority to stop production to correct safety problems.
Workers and contractors should be motivated and empowered to identify and report any known or potential problems and to recommend solutions to aid subsequent risk management and corrective action activities. All workers and contractors are encouraged to participate and engage with occupational health and safety management processes.
At your facilities, your organization should appoint nominated Health & Safety Representatives, First Aiders and Fire Marshals as required by local conditions, and as determined by fire risk assessments. Employees who share workspace are required to cooperate and coordinate their actions to ensure safe undertakings.
All of the ISO 45001 clauses are fully-documented and explained in our Occupational Health and Safety Management System Template (OH&S).
We have procedures, templates, checklists, process maps, forms and gap analysis tools to help your documentation without missing a single input or output.
Before you invest all the hours reinventing the wheel, before you spend countless dollars outsourcing the task — try our templates.
Updated: 30th March 2022
Author: Richard Keen
Richard is our Compliance Director, responsible for content & product development.
But most importantly he is ISO's biggest fanboy and a true evangelist of the standards.
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