Clause 4.5.2 Evaluation of Compliance

[rdkunz]

HeLP! I am new on this forum. My company has recently completed training on the 18001-2007 std. We had started on the 1999 version and in our conversion we are having a hard time visulizing how to interprate Clause 4.5.2 Evaluation of compliance
I want to understand how people have approached this clause. Is the best approach thru auditing of procedures / processes against regulatory requirements?

Thanks in advance,

Renee

[Sidney Vianna]

The Working Draft # 1 (not the latest) of OHSAS 18002:2008 states

An organisation should establish, implement and maintain a procedure for periodically evaluating its compliance with the legal or other requirements that are applicable to its OH&S risks, as part of its commitment to compliance. The organisation should record the results of this evaluation.
A variety of inputs can be used to assess compliance, including:

• audits

• the results of regulatory inspections
• analysis of legal and other requirements
• reviews of documents and /or records of incidents and risk assessments
• facility inspections
• interviews
• project or work reviews
• analysis of test results from monitoring and testing
• facility tours and / or direct observations

An organisation should establish a methodology for evaluation of compliance that suits its size, type and complexity. A compliance evaluation can encompass multiple legal requirements or a single requirement. The frequency of evaluations can be affected by factors such as past compliance performance or specific legal requirements. While all legal requirements have to be evaluated, the organization may need to evaluate individual requirements at different times or at different frequencies, or as appropriate.
A compliance evaluation programme can be integrated with other assessment activities. These can include management system audits, environmental audits or quality assurance checks.
Similarly, an organisation should periodically evaluate its compliance with other requirements to which it subscribes (for further guidance on other requirements, see 4.3.2). An organization may wish to establish a separate process for conducting such evaluations or it may choose to combine these evaluations with its evaluations of compliance with legal requirements (see above), its management review process (4.6) or other evaluation processes.
The results of the periodic evaluations of legal or other requirements should be recorded.

You could also outsource this compliance evaluation process, if you don't have people fully versed in the regulations you are subjected to.

[Randy]

Wow, I might have messed up....If I did I'm sorry

Here it is real simple.

What are the health and safety laws are you required to comply with? (8CCR for example...that's Cal Osha for you folks out there...in CA this is the stuff your company can be fined for not doing and the boss can go to prison for if it's bad enough)

What other health and safety requirements are you required to comply with? (1st on your list will be OHSAS 18001, next will be things like industry requirements, corporate requirements, so on an so forth....)

Come up with a way to measure, determine and verify the effectiveness of your compliance efforts? (make sure whoever does this is competent in the subject matter)

Fix what you find wrong and keep from breaking those things that look like you're weak in. (Apply your CA/PA and make sure you do a risk assessment of the fixes)

Generate a report.

As a note...get a copy of OHSAS 18002 "Guidelines for the Implementation of OHSAS 18001" because it tells you how to do it.

Also...give me a call, you got my number.

Randy

[Helmut Jilling]

Originally Posted by rdkunz

...Clause 4.5.2 Evaluation of compliance
I want to understand how people have approached this clause. Is the best approach thru auditing of procedures / processes against regulatory requirements?

Renee

In this clause, your focus is to evalaute whether you are actually doing and meeting the regulatory requirements themselves, not only evaluating procedures.

[rdkunz]

Thank you for your replies. We were thinking that it might be a little more complicated than at first glance. We are trying to keep things as simple as possible as not to get overwhelmed and quit. Our 18002 is for the 1999 version. Is the 2007 version of 18002 out? This clause isn't discussed in the 1999 version. We looked there first.

This is a very cool site. Thank you for sharing it with me Randy.

Renee

[Randy]

Heya Renee.........

Yeah, what you guys did itsn't uncommon. It's really pretty simple. Now if you have a copy of ISO 14004:2004 just use it (4.5.2) as a rough reference for the time being (Same clause and requirement except its EMS and not OHS, but the process and desired result is the same).

There will be a new version of 18002 out later this year.

[samsung]

I'm also new to ISO 14001 & 18001. Clause 4.5.2 is not clear to me.
'A.3.2 Legal and other requirements

The organization needs to identify the legal requirements that are applicable to its environmental aspects.
These may include
a) national and international legal requirements,'

What does 'International Legal Requirements' Mean both in terms of 14K & 18K? While one is obliged to comply with requirements stipulated in one's National Laws, is it obligatory for one to comply with International laws even if these are not ratified by the National Government of a country?

For example, are the ILO conventions ( whether ratified by the national governments or not) which are targeted at the countries (not companies), to be taken into considerations while evaluating Compliance as per 4.5.2 ?

Similarly there are various other International Laws, agreements, conventions, Codes of Practices relating to EHS regulations but all are not directly applicable to one's operations. What is the rule of thumb in evaluating compliance against these International laws?

Regards,