ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems
The ILO's voluntary guidelines for occupational safety and health management systems in organisations: a written OSH policy with commitments to prevention, compliance, worker participation and continual improvement; line-management responsibility with a senior owner, competence and free training, documentation, records and communication; an initial review, planned measurable objectives, the hierarchy of prevention and control, management of change, emergency arrangements, OSH in procurement and contracting; active and reactive monitoring, investigation of injuries and incidents, independent audit and management review; and preventive and corrective action with continual improvement, plus the national framework expected of competent institutions.
ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems is a compliance framework from International with 5 domains and 24 controls. The largest domains are Chapter 3 Planning and implementation: initial review, system planning, objectives, hazard prevention (3.7 to 3.10) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (8 controls), Chapter 3 Organizing: responsibility and accountability, competence and training, documentation, communication (3.3 to 3.6) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (6 controls), Chapter 3 Evaluation: performance monitoring, investigation, audit, management review (3.11 to 3.14) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (5 controls). Every control below carries what it requires and what an assessor expects to see.
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Framework Domains (5)
Chapter 3 Action for improvement: preventive and corrective action, continual improvement (3.15 and 3.16) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.15 | Preventive and corrective action arrangements driven by monitoring, audits and management reviews that identify and analyse root causes of non-conformity with OSH regulations and system arrangements, and initiate, plan, implement, verify and document corrective and preventive action including changes to the system; where protective measures are or may become inadequate, address them through the hierarchy of controls, completed and documented in good time |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.16 | Arrangements for continual improvement of each element and the system as a whole, drawing on objectives, hazard and risk assessments, monitoring results, investigations and audit recommendations, management review outcomes, improvement suggestions from all members including the committee, changes in law, voluntary programmes and collective agreements, new information and the results of health protection and promotion programmes; compare safety and health processes and performance with other organisations |
Chapter 3 Evaluation: performance monitoring, investigation, audit, management review (3.11 to 3.14) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.11.1-3.11.5 | Procedures to monitor, measure and record OSH performance regularly, with allocated responsibility at each management level; indicators chosen for the organisation's size, activity and objectives; qualitative and quantitative measures based on identified hazards, policy commitments and objectives that feed the management review; monitoring that shows whether policy and objectives are implemented and risks controlled, uses active and reactive methods beyond injury statistics, is recorded, and gives feedback, assurance that day-to-day controls work, and the basis for improvement decisions |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.11.6-3.11.7 | Active monitoring of plans, performance criteria and objectives, systematic inspection of work systems, premises, plant and equipment, surveillance of the working environment including work organisation, health surveillance for early detection of harm, and compliance with legal and subscribed commitments; reactive monitoring that identifies, reports and investigates injuries, ill health including sickness absence, diseases and incidents, other losses such as property damage, deficient performance and system failures, and rehabilitation and health-restoration programmes |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.12 | Investigate the origin and underlying causes of injuries, ill health, diseases and incidents to find system failures, by competent persons with worker participation, documented, reported to the safety and health committee for recommendations, communicated for corrective action and fed into management review and continual improvement; implement the corrective action to prevent repetition; act on external investigators' reports in the same way |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.13 | Periodic audits under an audit policy and programme defining auditor competency, scope, frequency, methodology and reporting, covering every system element, concluding on effectiveness against policy and objectives, worker participation, response to performance evaluation and earlier audits, legal compliance and continual improvement, conducted by competent persons independent of the activity audited, reported to those responsible for corrective action, with worker participation in auditor selection and all audit stages |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.14 | Management reviews at a frequency and scope set by the employer or most senior accountable person that evaluate the system's overall strategy against planned performance, its ability to meet the needs of the organisation and stakeholders including workers and regulators, the need for changes to the system, policy and objectives, timely remedial action including adaptations to management structure and performance measurement, direction and priorities for planning and improvement, progress on objectives and corrective actions, and the effectiveness of earlier follow-up; consider investigation, monitoring and audit results and internal and external changes; record and communicate findings to those responsible and to the committee and workers |
Chapter 3 Organizing: responsibility and accountability, competence and training, documentation, communication (3.3 to 3.6) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.3.1-3.3.2 | Employer holds overall responsibility and leads OSH; employer and senior management allocate responsibility, accountability and authority through structures and processes that make OSH a line-management duty, define roles for those controlling hazards, supervise, promote cooperation, set policy and measurable objectives, control hazards, run prevention and health promotion programmes, enable full worker participation and resource OSH roles |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.3.3 | Appoint senior management owners with responsibility, accountability and authority for developing, implementing, reviewing and evaluating the system, reporting periodically to senior management on its performance, and promoting everyone's participation |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.4 | Define OSH competence requirements and keep everyone competent for the safety and health aspects of their duties; hold or access enough OSH competence to control hazards and run the system; run training programmes that cover all members, use competent trainers, give timely initial and refresher training, test comprehension, are reviewed with the committee and documented; provide training free and during working hours where possible |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.5.1-3.5.2 | Establish and maintain OSH-MS documentation proportionate to the organisation, covering policy and objectives, allocated roles, significant hazards and risks with their controls, and the procedures and instructions used; keep it clearly written for its users, periodically reviewed, communicated and accessible |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.5.3-3.5.5 | Keep OSH records locally that are identifiable and traceable with specified retention times, including system records, injury and incident records, records required by law, exposure and health surveillance records and monitoring results, with workers entitled to access records on their environment and health subject to confidentiality |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.6 | Communication arrangements for receiving, documenting and responding to internal and external OSH communications, for passing OSH information between levels and functions, and for receiving, considering and answering workers' concerns, ideas and inputs |
Chapter 3 Planning and implementation: initial review, system planning, objectives, hazard prevention (3.7 to 3.10) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.10.1 | Identify and assess hazards and risks continuously and apply preventive and protective measures in order of priority: eliminate, control at source by engineering or organisational means, minimise through safe work systems and administrative controls, and provide free personal protective equipment where residual risk remains, ensuring its use and maintenance; keep prevention procedures adapted to the hazards, regularly reviewed, lawful, in line with good practice and current knowledge |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.10.2 | Management of change: evaluate the OSH impact of internal changes (staffing, processes, procedures, structures, acquisitions) and external changes (law, mergers, OSH knowledge and technology) and take preventive steps before introducing them; assess hazards and risks before any new or modified work method, material, process or machinery, with workers, representatives and the committee involved; inform and train everyone affected when a change decision is implemented |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.10.3 | Emergency prevention, preparedness and response arrangements sized to the organisation that identify potential accidents and emergencies, prevent the associated risks, provide information, internal communication and coordination to protect everyone on site, communicate with authorities, neighbours and emergency services, cover first aid, medical assistance, firefighting and evacuation, train all levels with regular exercises, and are developed with external emergency services |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.10.4 | Procurement procedures that identify, evaluate and build safety and health requirements into purchasing and leasing specifications, identify legal and internal OSH requirements before goods and services are procured, and achieve conformance before use |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.10.5 | Apply the organisation's safety and health requirements, or at least the equivalent, to contractors and their workers: OSH criteria in contractor selection, communication and coordination before work starts including hazards and controls, reporting of contractor injuries and incidents, hazard awareness and training before and during the work, regular monitoring of contractor OSH performance, and enforcement of on-site OSH procedures |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.7 | Carry out an initial review by competent persons in consultation with workers that identifies applicable legal and other requirements, identifies, anticipates and assesses hazards and risks from the existing or proposed work environment and organisation, judges the adequacy of existing or planned controls and analyses health surveillance data; document the result as the basis for decisions and the baseline for improvement |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.8 | Plan the system so that it delivers at minimum legal compliance, all system elements and continual improvement, based on the initial and subsequent reviews, with defined and prioritised objectives, a plan per objective naming who does what by when, measurement criteria for achievement, and adequate human, financial and technical resources |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.9 | Measurable OSH objectives consistent with the policy and based on reviews: specific to the organisation, consistent with legal, technical and business obligations, focused on continually improving worker protection, realistic and achievable, documented and communicated to all relevant functions and levels, and periodically evaluated and updated |
Chapter 3 Policy: OSH policy and worker participation (3.1 and 3.2) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.1.1 | A written OSH policy, agreed with workers and their representatives, that fits the organisation, is signed and dated by the most senior accountable person, is communicated and accessible at the workplace, reviewed for suitability and shared with outside parties as appropriate |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.1.2-3.1.3 | Policy commitments at minimum: preventing work-related injury, ill health, disease and incidents; complying with OSH law, voluntary programmes, collective agreements and other subscribed requirements; consulting and involving workers in every element; continually improving the system; and compatibility or integration with other management systems |
| ilo-osh-2001-guidelines-on-occupational-safety-and-health-management-systems::3.2 | Worker participation: consult, inform and train workers and their safety and health representatives on all OSH aspects including emergencies, give them time and resources to take part in organizing, planning, evaluation and improvement, and establish a functioning safety and health committee and recognised representatives in line with national law and practice |
What is ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems and who does it apply to?
ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems is a compliance framework from International with 5 domains and 24 controls. The ILO's voluntary guidelines for occupational safety and health management systems in organisations: a written OSH policy with commitments to prevention, compliance, worker participation and continual improvement; line-management responsibility with a senior owner, competence and free training, documentation, records and communication; an initial review, planned measurable objectives, the hierarchy of prevention and control, management of change, emergency arrangements, OSH in procurement and contracting; active and reactive monitoring, investigation of injuries and incidents, independent audit and management review; and preventive and corrective action with continual improvement, plus the national framework expected of competent institutions. It is used by organisations to establish and maintain compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements.
What does ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems actually require?
ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems has 24 controls organised across 5 domains. The largest domains are Chapter 3 Planning and implementation: initial review, system planning, objectives, hazard prevention (3.7 to 3.10) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (8 controls), Chapter 3 Organizing: responsibility and accountability, competence and training, documentation, communication (3.3 to 3.6) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (6 controls), Chapter 3 Evaluation: performance monitoring, investigation, audit, management review (3.11 to 3.14) – ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (5 controls). Each control defines specific requirements that organisations must implement to achieve compliance.
If I already comply with another framework, how much of ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems do I already cover?
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