OHSAS 18001 - Clause 4.4.3 Communication "...shall be documented..."

[Karen R]

Greetings! I'm in the early stages of formalizing my OH&S system for 18001 registration and while reviewing clause 4.4.3 I've gotten a bit hung up on the second sentence

Employee involvement and consultation arrangements shall be documented and interested parties informed.

We have a procedure/process for employee involvement, we conform to the requirements in the following sentences regarding employee involvement in developing procedures, consultation on changes and representation on h&s matters... Evidence could be seen through meeting minutes, safety councils, SOP revisions, JSAs, training records, e-mails...

... so that "shall be documented" - am I reading too much into this? Are there aspects that might apply in organized labor or other environments that would trigger this? I don't want to overanalyze, but that "shall" is always a trigger for concern.

[Masculinie]

Originally Posted by Karen R

Greetings! I'm in the early stages of formalizing my OH&S system for 18001 registration and while reviewing clause 4.4.3 I've gotten a bit hung up on the second sentence

We have a procedure/process for employee involvement, we conform to the requirements in the following sentences regarding employee involvement in developing procedures, consultation on changes and representation on h&s matters... Evidence could be seen through meeting minutes, safety councils, SOP revisions, JSAs, training records, e-mails...

... so that "shall be documented" - am I reading too much into this? Are there aspects that might apply in organized labor or other environments that would trigger this? I don't want to overanalyze, but that "shall" is always a trigger for concern.

If the organized labor is indeed an interested party.... yes, get it included and be documented....

One thing great about OHSAS 18001 - communication is made two ways this time.... top-down consultation and bottom-up communication....

Masculinie

[Randy]

You're doing fine Karen.....

The important thing to remember is that a flow of relevent and necessary information is established and maintained. Let the employees know what hazards there may be and how to identify/reduce/manage them, and let the employees tell you what they think is necessary for the identification/reduction/management of hazards. We call it Risk Management

[Karen R]

Thanks, Randy

P.S. I'd also be happy to receive any advice and/or sample docs on that risk assessment process. I'd like to expand from our current JSA's to a more FMEA-based approach...

[Randy]

Believe it or not, one of the best places to obtain good (and free) information on Risk Assessment is from the US Army Safety Center. The other branches also have some good Risk Assessment information, but I'm more familiar with the Army. They have a great P-Point that can be edited for civilian use. I'll see if I have some of this stuff handy. If you have a Army Reserve or Guard unit nearby you might want to hit them up for material too.

You can find the safety center at http://safety.army.mil/home


There may be some areas you can't access, but check out the links.

[Karen R]

Thanks, again - I'll check it out!