It’s Time To Migrate to ISO 45001;2018 NOW!
With OHSAS 18001:2007 expiring in less than a year and replaced with ISO 45001:2018, it is time to start your migration process. After the 12th March 2021, all OHSAS18001 certificates will expire, and you will no longer be certified.
March 2021 may sound like a long way off, but it is important to remember that this is a migration and not just a transition (as was ISO 9001:2015) so you need to plan well in advance. As a mentor of mine, Bruce Mills of Kaizen SHEQ always advises his clients, you need to work backwards from the cutoff date to determine when implementation needs to begin. In terms of ISO 45001 and with the expiry date of OHSAS 18001 being March 2021, here are some aspects that need to be considered:
- Allow the certification body about 2 months to evaluate the auditor’s report and for any amendments to be made and finalized. This takes us from March to January 2021
- Traditionally, most industries are closed for Christmas between early December and mid-January. This takes us to end of November 2020
- This means that the latest date for the certification audit to be conducted is November 2020
- The management review meeting (MRM) must be held prior to certification audit so depending on the availability date for the certification audit, the MRM should not be later that the beginning of November 2020.
- The internal audit must be conducted before the MRM so that the results of the MRM can be discussed and evaluated as part of the MRM. This takes the date for the internal audit to October 2020
- Your management system must be implemented and running for at least 3 months prior to the certification audit. If the audit takes place in November 2020, your ISO 45001 must have been running since August 2020
- In order to achieve certification by March 2021, as of end of June 2020, you now only have about 6 weeks to complete your implementation or migration