1. Introduction
Organisations are becoming increasingly
concerned with the potential impact of their
activities, processes, products and services
on the health and safety of their staff.
They face increasing pressure, both internal
and external, to manage their business
management plans to give health and safety
protection greater priority. Organisations'
efforts to address the occupational health
and safety (OH&S) concerns can be given more
order and consistency through the
implementation of an OH&S Management System
(OHSMS).
An
OHSMS provides the framework for the
organisation to examine issues such as the
allocation of resources, assignment of
responsibilities and on-going evaluation of
practices, procedures and processes
systematically, and to achieve continuous
improvement in OH&S performance through
effective management of their risk impacts.
2.
The PSB OHSMS Certification Scheme
The
PSB OHSMS Certification Scheme is applicable
to all industries. Since launched on 26 Oct
1999, PSB Certification Pte Ltd has
certified more than 10 companies under this
scheme. More than 250 companies, in
particular, those from the construction and
chemical industries, have also shown keen
interest in the PSB OHSMS Certification
Scheme.
3.
World-Class Standard and Global Recognition
for PSB OHSMS Certified Companies
Unlike ISO 9000 and ISO 14000, the lack of
international OHSMS standards meant that
many countries used their own national
legislation as national OHSMS standards.
Most of these standards needed revision to
match the economic progress and social
expectation. Otherwise they adopted the OHS
guides that are widely used by a number of
countries as their national OHSMS standards.
The
latest "international" development is the
Occupational Health and Safety Management
Systems, OHSAS 18001:1999 published on 15
April 99 by British Standard Institute
(BSI). This was done with input from 5
National Standard Bodies (NSB) including
those from Australia / New Zealand / Ireland
/ South Africa and Malaysia. PSB
Certification has been adopted as one of
working members of OHSAS 18002, which are
the guidelines for the implementation of
OHSAS 18001 on 2 Sept 1999.
There is currently no Singapore Standard
(SS) similar to OHSMS standard in Singapore.
The closest to OHSMS standards in Singapore
is the introduction of Safety Management
System (SMS) for shipyards and construction
sites.
4. The
Professionalism, Credibility and Competency
of PSB Auditors
The
auditors are highly professional,
experienced, trained, credible and competent
to carry out quality management systems
audits on a wide range of industrial
sectors. The audit team includes OHS
professionals with many years of industry
experience managing OHS issues in companies.
They are also registered as safety officers
with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
5. Benefits of
OHSMS Certification
Investing in a well-thought-out OHSMS in
addition to company's quality, environment
and other management Systems is essential as
it will help company to cut direct and
indirect costs at one end of the spectrum,
to possible saving of lives at the other
extreme. In 1998, there were 65 deaths in
construction industry in Singapore. This
figure could have been reduced if a "system
approach" based on OHSMS is in place.
Studies by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE),
UK indicated that the overall cost to
employers of personal injury work accidents,
work related ill-health and avoidable
non-injury accidents is estimated to be
equivalent to around 5% to 10% of all UK
companies' gross trading profits.
The
role of a third party OHSMS assessment seeks
to improve the occupational health and
safety performance of organisations by
providing guidance on how the management of
OHS may be integrated with the management of
other aspects of business performance in
order to
-
minimise risk to employees and
others;
-
improve business performance by
either increasing the employees'
productivity e.g. reduce
absenteeism, reduce medical leaves,
promote healthy working environment
etc. or reducing costs ranging from
increasing medical fees, insurance
claims and higher insurance premium;
and
- assist
organisation to establish a
responsible image within marketplace
