Guidance on Management of Psychosocial Risks in the Workplace

[Sidney Vianna]

As we get close to the publication of ISO 45001, motions are in place for the creation of an ISO Technical Committee to maintain this standard - currently the work spent to release ISO 45001 is under a PC (Project Committee) 283, not a TC.

The attached document to this post let us know what else this ISO TC would work, should ISO agree with the proposal. Done deal, by the way.

One of the interesting proposals emanating from this group is the development of a guidance standard on the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace. The following is an excerpt from the proposal document:

SCOPE: It is intended that this standard provides practical guidance for the assessment and management of psychosocial risks in the workplace and will be suitable for incorporation into an OH&S management system as well as independent use. It will be suitable for all types of organizations regardless of size, maturity or sector. As seed documents, the TC can draw upon the UK document PAS 1010:2011 Guidance on the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace and the Canadian National Standard CAN/CSAZ1003-13/BNQ 9700-803/2013, Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace amongst others.

Being a guidance standard, it should not be used for certification purposes, but some CB's out there don't shy away from certifying suckers clients on non-certifiable standards.

 

[Paul Simpson]

Thanks for posting, Sidney. I have no inside knowledge on this but would agree that the migration from PC to TC is a done deal. There is a huge amount of work to do in the H & S space and the example you've picked up of psychosocial risks is an area where there is great interest. The UK Mirror committee is developing some guidance for 45001 and one of the documents will be to cover the Occupational Health side - as this is less well understood than the Occupational Safety side.

 

[Randy]

It can open Pandora's Box and unleash a nest of snakes...There's no way to quantify this ****

 

[Mike S.]

This conversation is causing me on-the-job stress. I believe I need a few days off with pay to deal with it.....

 

[Randy]

I'll just let the stress of this subject compoundwith my already heavy dose of PTS...I may come all the way around to normal

 

[John Broomfield]

Heres a useful and free reference on psychosocial risk:

http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/PRIMA-EF Guidance_9.pdf

Enjoy!

John