The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an unofficial, independent and the largest international standards organization in the world. Today, more than 160 members are based in Geneva. A large number of enterprises of all sectors, large and small, establish and manage a variety of management systems designed and published by ISO. The following three systems are crucial in these management prompts:

  • ISO 9001 Quality Management System
  • ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
  • ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System

The ISO 45001 standard is a management system standard that will replace the current OHSAS 18001 standard. The OHSAS 18001 standard is a standard published by the British Standards Institute (BSI) on occupational health and safety. However, unlike the standard ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 standards, this standard includes the principles for occupational health and safety rather than the safety of the product or service. It is a standard for determining the hazards and risks encountered in enterprises and reducing the risks. Meanwhile, the OHSAS 18001 standard is not an ISO standard.

The ISO 18001 standard, which will replace the OHSAS 45001 standard, also focuses on the following objectives:

  • Identify, eliminate or at least mitigate the health and safety risks that workers are exposed to during their activities
  • To ensure establishment of Occupational Health and Safety Management System in the enterprise and to develop and operate this system
  • To ensure that the activities are in compliance with the declared occupational health and safety policies.
  • Show and certify this eligibility to third parties

At this point, when the ISO 45001 standard is issued, the enterprises establishing and fulfilling the requirements of this system can apply to a certification body and request ISO 45001 certificate.

The certification bodies shall issue this document and submit it to the company if they deem it appropriate after two-stage audit. The first phase of the certification studies is based on the documentation studies prepared during the system installation. After these studies are completed, the auditors carry out work on the work in the offices and working environments of the enterprise and issue an audit report. The certification takes this report into account when making its decision.

OHSAS 45001 certification studies are still in progress since ISO 18001 standard has not been published yet. These documents will be replaced by the ISO 45001 certificate according to the schedule to be determined in the future.