International agreement on ISO 45001

How did we get agreement on the the draft standard?

The DIS 2 of ISO 45001 received voting results of Approvals 57; Dis-approvals 7, Abstentions 8, which means it has been approved with 88% in favour. A vote of 75% was sufficient for it to move forward to a final draft (FDIS) or as the published standard.

Some 1630 comments were made proposing improvements which will be considered when the Project Committee and Working Group meets in Malaysia in September. Some decisions will need to be taken to determine the way forward:

1.      To disagree most of the recommendations being made by the comments, in order to avoid any “technical” changes to the draft, which would allow PC283 to avoid the FDIS stage and to proceed to publication after the meeting of the committee in September. If PC283 agreed on this approach then the standard could be published before the end of the year.

2.      To review the comments and accept technical changes, which would require the FDIS stage, and take about 5 to 6 months after the September meeting to achieve publication presuming it received a positive vote. At the FDIS stage it is just a yes/no vote and it is hoped that the 88% vote in favour for DIS 2 would be sustained for the FDIS.

Should the PC fail to review all the comments in September and a further Working Group meeting is required, then there may be an additional a further 3 months to the time to achieve publication.

PC 283 will be meeting during 18 – 24 September 2017. It will make its decision on the path forward at that meeting.