Citation

Ghahramani A, Salminen S. Safety Sci. 2019; 112: 206-212.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2018.10.021

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The application of occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMSs) in recent decades has led to the successful control of workplace injuries in high-income countries. The occupational health and safety assessment series (OHSAS) 18001 has gained a considerable acceptance worldwide, and a large number of organizations have implemented the requirements of it. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of OHSAS 18001 on safety performance in certified organizations. The present study was conducted in three OHSAS 18001-certified and three control manufacturing companies to evaluate the effectiveness of OHSAS 18001 on the improvement of safety performance indicators of occupational injury rate (OIR), safety climate, occupational health and safety (OHS) practices. The results did not indicate a significant effect of OHSAS 18001 certification on the OIR and safety climate level has not improved 4-9 years after certification. The certified companies had better OHS activity rates compared with the control companies. The assessment of OHSAS 18001 activity rates showed that the certified companies fulfill about fifty percent of the requirements of the OHSAS 18001 standard. It can be concluded that having an OHSAS 18001 certification cannot be a guarantee for achieving a good performance on safety. The characteristics of a certified organization in how to implement and maintain the requirements of the OHSAS 18001 standard is a decisive factor for the effectiveness of it on the improvement of safety performance.

Language: en

Keywords

Certification; Lagging; Leading; Management commitment; Safety culture