45001

ISO 45001 is an international standard for occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It specifies requirements for an organization to establish, implement, maintain and continually improve an OHSMS, with the aim of providing safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health.

The standard is designed to be applicable to any organization, regardless of size, sector or location, and can be integrated with other management system standards. It uses the High Level Structure of Annex SL to align with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and follows a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.

Key requirements cover understanding the organization’s context, leadership and worker participation, planning to address risks and opportunities and legal requirements, support such as resources and competence, operation including hazard identification, risk assessment and emergency preparedness, performance evaluation via monitoring, measurement and audits, and management review, and continual improvement through corrective actions.

ISO 45001 superseded OHSAS 18001. Organizations certified to OHSAS 18001 were encouraged to migrate to ISO 45001; timing varied by jurisdiction, but the standard has become the global basis for occupational health and safety management since its publication in 2018.

Benefits include reduced incidents and ill health, improved legal compliance and risk management, enhanced stakeholder confidence, and the ability to integrate health and safety with other organizational processes.

The standard is commonly implemented together with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, enabling a unified approach to governance, risk, and performance.