ISO 45001 Certification - Occupational Safety Management

As an employer in Germany, you are obliged to actively pursue occupational safety in your company. The Occupational Health and Safety Act is one of the most important foundations for creating a legally secure framework for every organization.

To this end, the German Social Accident Insurance publishes its statistics on reportable occupational accidents every year. Last year, there were 877,198 occupational accidents, 420 fatal occupational accidents and 78,384 cases of occupational illness.

These occupational accidents result in high costs for the company. The following exemplary costs may be incurred due to the absence of personnel:

• direct costs (personnel costs during incapacity for work),
• Production losses, additional personnel costs, due to overtime or replacement personnel,
• Administrative costs (reorganization of work and recruitment costs),
• Property damage,
• Contractual penalties for failure to meet deadlines and
• Surcharge for contributions to the Employer's Liability Insurance Association.

However, occupational accidents are not the only cause of employee absenteeism; incapacity to work also occurs as a result of activities at work. The BAuA (German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) determines an annual ranking of occupational diseases. Diseases of the musculoskeletal system occur most frequently, closely followed by respiratory diseases and mental stress. According to the BAuA, the sectors most at risk of incapacity to work are public and private services and the manufacturing industry excluding construction.

A well-functioning occupational health and safety management system in accordance with the ISO 45001 standard is therefore not only a legal safeguard with greater legal security. It also pays off for the company through less production downtime. The aim is to protect employees from hazards and damage to their health.

This means creating good working conditions, analyzing hazards and promoting health at work. To this end, the employer is obliged to carry out a risk assessment of the activities performed. This helps to detect hazards at workplaces and to assess their hazard potential. In addition, the hazards for mental stress must also be determined.

With the knowledge gained, targeted measures can be taken to support effective accident prevention. The organization must take precautions for particularly hazardous and dangerous work situations and places in order to reduce or, in the best case, eliminate the risk of an occupational accident.

In addition, the employer has a duty to provide annual occupational safety and health training to its employees so that they are aware of potential hazards and how to deal with them properly. It is important that employees are taught through training where particularly hazardous situations may occur. In addition, they must know what measures to take to protect their own health, such as wearing personal protective equipment.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act has some ordinances to help employers implement measures. Examples of these are the ordinances in the areas of workplace and workstation design, noise protection, occupational health precautions, load handling and for handling hazardous or biological substances, and in the technical area, the Product Safety Act.

In 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was revised to include, for example, a risk assessment for expectant mothers in the workplace and new workplace values for dust particles. Therefore, it is important to regularly review and update the laws. An occupational health and safety management system with certification to ISO 45001 helps to keep an eye on the laws and to integrate processes for dealing with occupational health and safety into the company structures. The "High Level Structure (HLS)" makes it easy to integrate into other management systems such as quality and environmental protection.

Notice:

For companies previously certified to the BS OHSAS 18001 standard, the changeover to the new DIN ISO 45001:2018 standard must be completed by March 12, 2021. For companies that already have ISO 9001:2015 (or 14001:2015) certification and know the high-level structure, it is possible to implement DIN ISO 45001 into your management system with little effort.

With X.CERT® you have a competent certifier of occupational health and safety management systems at your side. X.CERT® is specialized in SMEs and offers you as a certifier an efficient assessment regarding the compliance and the further development of management systems. With our high-quality certificates, you not only create confidence in the market and improve your image, but also make sure that you stay on the right track.

X.CERT® is characterized by the diversity of its audit team. Here, many years of experience in conducting audits meet the latest scientific findings, supported by the experience of the regional university and professional experience from the perspective of management representatives from practice. The interaction of these different perspectives of X.CERT® makes up the unique competence, which helps you to discover and promote improvement potential in your company through an intensive investigation. The philosophy of X.CERT® is to add value to the company with its assessment and to support it in its development.

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