Posted By MCB What are the motivations for a company to certify according to OHSAS 18001? Are there some legal requirements in any countries? Are there any benefits or grants for certified companies? Are there already some corporations that ask their supplier for a certification?

Posted By Paul Craythorne Some insurance companies are offering a discount on EL insurance for OHSAS18001 accredited clients Paul Craythorne

Posted By david baird Be very wary as there is very little hard research evidence that says cert to OHSAS 18001 = improved HS performance. Safety practitioners work on the assumption that it must do. Speaking from experience of having the badge in previous employment, culture must be right as well or all you will do is hang a badge up on the wall and become disillusioned. Can still maim people and have OHSAS18001 and keep it and can still seriously breach Env legis and keep ISO 14001. Will look good on tender docs though, but be aware has severe limits in terms of improvement. Cheers, Dave

Posted By Merv Newman I am not sure if 18000 will ever become an international standard. The French equivalent of the Department of Trade and Industry came out against it last year saying "there is no need for such a standard. All the employer has to do is obey the law. And in any case, safety at work is the unions affair" BSI and AFAQ/NF (their french equivalent) do have trained auditors for OHSAS 18000 though the say that "at the moment we have more auditers than there are auditees" Renault, with about 40 000 employees, are using an adaptation of 18000 which incorporates their own business values, and are awarding "Safety Labels" (that means something special to them) to qualifying plants. Auditing is done by outside consultants (and no, we didn't get that contract) The labels are presented by the President of Renault, Louis Schweitzer, who then goes and meets as many employees as possible, trailed by the plant manager clutching the "label". I believe that Renault is trying to build it's "safe car" image : 5 star crash test ratings and so on : "We build safe cars safely" So yes, handled correctly, certification can give a company much more than a solid safety management system. And yes, I do know a plant with 18001 and an horrendous LTI rate. The safety culture was just not there. (it is now) Merv

Posted By Nigel Hammond We ACHIEVED OHSAS 18001 Certification with BSI last year. I put the word ACHIEVED in block capitals because it is a big achievement and took a lot of work - in terms of getting H&S management systems set-up and implemented. External accreditation also means that every six months, external auditors come in and keep us on our toes. I read the post about lack of evidence that OHSAS 18001 accreditation is effective. I can only speak for our organisation which is a charity providing support for people with learning disabilities. Of course accidents will still happen. However, if there were no accidents, we would be failing - as we do not want zero risk - we are aiming to enable people to take risks within a managed way. There have been some major improvements following OHSAS 18001 certification. Non-regulated parts of the organisation such as some of our adult learning services who would only get the occasional environmental health food hygiene inspection -now receive BSI audits and it has made them get their act together on health & safety. Directors all have to provide quarterly H&S reports and set objectives for their divisions. Some directors would not get round to doing this if they were not worried about being the one responsible for loosing our accreditation. All our tenders ask for H&S management systems. Being able to say we not only have H&S MS but are also accredited by BSI must help - especially as we are the first in our field. Also our insurance premiums have been reduced. It also reassures our clients (local authorities, health authorities and families) that we are serious about health & safety.