The Hambantota International Port (HIP) was recently certified by the International Organization for Standardization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, to comply with ISO 45001: 2018 for its Occupational Health & Safety Management System (OH&SMS).
Before obtaining accreditation, the Port went through a 6-month preparing and a 3-month audit that allows organizations to set up an efficient Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) management scheme. The audit was carried out by Bureau Veritas Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd., a worldwide leader in quality, health & safety, environment, and social responsibility audit services.
ISO 45001 would enable HIP to handle its OH&S hazards and enhance its OH&S performance by creating and applying efficient strategies and goals. Key prospective advantages of using the standard include reducing workplace incidents, reducing absenteeism and employee turnover, leading to increased productivity, lower insurance premium costs, creating a health and safety culture whereby employees are encouraged to play an active part in their own OH&S, strengthening management commitment to proactively enhance OH&S efficiency, and enabling employees to participate.
The certification method involved the identification and selection of a third-party certification body, followed by an original audit also known as the Gap Analysis, followed by the primary audit known as the Implementation Audit. The next stage is to award the certificate once the Non-Conformities (NCs) recognized in Stage 2 have been successfully closed. The first annual surveillance audit would be performed at the end of the second year of accreditation, one year after the award of accreditation, followed by a second surveillance audit. A further audit is performed at the end of the 3rd year for recertification. The certifying body would conduct all audits to ensure that the standard’s quality assurance is preserved.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a global standard-setting body made up of representatives from multiple organizations of domestic norms. The Organization was founded on February 23, 1947 and encourages proprietary, industrial and commercial norms throughout the world and operates in 164 nations.
