Since 2006 Canada has had a CSA Standard for health and safety call the – Occupational Health and Safety Management System Standard CSA Z1000-6. This standard establishes the basic criteria for the development, implementation and maintenance of a Health and Safety Management System.
The criteria are outlined in the following areas:
- Commitment, Leadership and Participation
- Planning
- Implementation
- Evaluation and Corrective Action
- Management Review and Continual Improvement
The CSA Z1000-06 Standard:
- Provides a tool to help organizations improve their occupational health and safety performance.
- Provides motivation for Canadian organizations to implement an OHS management system that meets the requirements of a recognized standard.
- Forms a framework through which all Canadian OHS standards can be appropriately applied.
- Provides criteria to facilitate the improvement of organization’s OHS performance.
- Establishes basic requirements for an effective occupational health and safety management system, including management system documentation.
- Is designed for use by organizations of all types and sizes.
- Is harmonized with existing standards to facilitate acceptance and use.
The Standard is also:
- A tool for achieving high standards of health, safety and well-being in the workplace
- Applicable to large, medium or small enterprises
- Comprehensive in scope
- Effective in practice
- Performance based
- Balanced approach between hazard and risk based prevention and control
- Based on management commitment and worker participation
- Identifying and defining roles, responsibilities and accountabilities
- Consistent with other management system standards
Commitment, Leadership and Participation
This section addresses:
- Senior management leadership and responsibility
- Designation of a representative of management
- Worker participation
- Occupational Health and Safety Policy
Planning
This section addresses:
- Identification and prioritization of hazards, risks, organizational requirements and opportunities for improvement in order to set objectives and targets
- Review existing OHSMS or information necessary for establishing an OHSMS
- Identification and evaluation of compliance with legal and other requirements
- The development of a process to identify and assess hazards and risks
- Establishing OHS objectives and targets
Implementation
This section addresses:
- Preventive and protective measures using the hierarchy of controls: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, awareness means, administrative controls, PPE
- Emergency prevention, preparedness, and response – procedures to prevent, prepare for and respond
- Competence and training – define competency, ensure workers are competent and aware of requirements
- Communication and awareness – procedures to communicate information, report injuries, illnesses, incidents, hazards and risks, respond to worker and external communications
- Procurement of materials and contractors – a process to evaluate materials and eliminate or control associated hazards and risks and procedures to evaluate contractors, hazards and risks to the organization’s workers from contractors and vice versa.
- Management of change – procedures to identify, assess and eliminate or control OHS hazards and risks from new processes or significant changes
- Creating and maintain documents and records specified by your OHSMS
Evaluation and Corrective Action
This section addresses:
- Evaluation of the OHSMS performance
- Corrective action
- Follow-up and assessment of corrective action effectiveness
- Feedback for planning and management review
Management Review and Continual Improvement
This section addresses:
- Monitoring and measurement – procedures to monitor, measure and record OHS performance and the effectiveness of the OHSMS
- Injury & incident investigation – procedures for reporting and investigation of injuries, illnesses and OHS incidents including root cause analysis; feedback; and, continuous improvement
- Internal Auditing – establish and maintain an internal audit program
- Preventive and corrective action – establish and maintain preventive and corrective action procedures to address non-conformances, existing and new hazards and track their effective implementation
- Management review meetings conducted by senior management to determine the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the OHSMS
- Continual improvement Management reviews that include an assessment for continual improvement opportunities.
- Review Inputs – audit results, feedback from workers, reports on extent to which objectives/targets have been met, status of corrective actions, etc.
- Review Outputs – decisions regarding improvements to the OHSMS, allocation of resources, etc.
The development and implementation of an OHSM that complies with the requirements of CSA Z1000-06 is a significant project that must be undertaken by the whole organization with full management support. Some of the steps related to the success of the project include:
- Increase understanding of CSA Z1000-06
- Senior Management Support and Commitment
- Establish a project coordinator
- Integrate OHSMS into corporate goals and objectives
- Conduct a Management System Gap Analysis
- Create a Management System Implementation Action Plan
- Carry out all the implementation requirements
- Conduct an Internal Audit
- Self declaration/External Registration (Optional)
- Continual Improvement