Publication of the long-awaited new international standard for occupational health and safety – ISO 45001 – is likely to be delayed after participating members of the ISO committee ‘disapproved’ its first draft.
Participating members – ie. those national standards bodies elected to work on the development of the draft international standard (DIS) – were balloted between 12 February and 12 May on whether to approve it.
Seventy-one per cent voted in favour, with 28 per cent against (one per cent abstained). For the DIS to have passed, two-thirds had to be in favour with less than a quarter against, taking into account abstentions
Members of the ISO 45001 work group – a worldwide collaboration of organisations involved in OHS, including IOSH – were notified over the weekend that the DIS had failed to gain approval.
Regardless of the outcome, the consultation that took place during the period of the ballot resulted in more than 3,000 comments – a scale of feedback likely to delay publication of the standard anyway, until February 2017, while it is considered.