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6
Safety
HEALTH & SAFETY AT WORK:
TOWARD THE NEW CERTIFICATION OHSAS 18001
The European workplace safety
directives issued at the
beginning of the nineties, now
commonly referred to in Italy
simply as the ‘626/94’, had the
effect of broadening and
generalising the span of attention
on the question of health and
safety at work. The predominantly
technical perspective of the fifties
was radically transformed into an
approach based more on the
need to actually understand
hazard situations, and the
conviction that the only way to
minimise and resolve problems
was by studying and analysing
them thoroughly.
And so, the law sets companies
the primary tasks of analysing
the work processes in the
production cycle, identifying the
potential hazards to workers,
planning and creating (where
concretely possible) improvement
measures aimed at continuous
hazard reduction, assessing
residual hazards and, finally,
keeping workers informed about
the hazards they are exposed to
that cannot be practically avoided
or further reduced with preventive
technical measures.
The new aspects of the 626/94
Law Decree were therefore already
significant in their own right, in
that they shifted attention from
an exclusively or predominantly
technical approach, centering
on machine and workplace
requirements, to a complex set
of factors which, in order to
obtain new improvement margins,
called for a new, more decisive
and clearly defined way of
working, based on the increased
awareness and motivation of
BN31 • 3rd Quarter 2002
Berco complies with European safety management system directives
those in charge of the work
processes and the workers
themselves, focussing attention
on the importance of the
organisation of the work, internal
procedures and operational
instructions, training and, in
general, on organisational and
managerial systems capable of
ensuring continual, generalised
awareness of all the problems
related to workplace health and
safety.
But the 626/94, whilst taking
the credit for putting
organisational and management
problems to the fore and
emphasising the role of training
in hazard prevention and
containment, did not, as such,
specify the standard and
obligatory methods to be used to
ensure observance of the many
new legal requirements.
It was felt, therefore, in order
to be more consistently certain
about the legal requirements in
the context of continually
improving performance, that
there was a need to make
reference to a set of methods
and rules in which all the
technical, organisational and
procedural obligations of the
company were clearly stated in
a logical and organised sequence,
with a more precise allocation of
the roles and responsibilities of
the various key figures encharged
with ensuring safe working
conditions within the company
itself.
This need (felt not only in Italy
but all over Europe, as the 626/94
refers to European directives, in
particular the 89/391/EEC
Directive) led to the drafting of
the European OHSAS
(Occupational Health and Safety
Assessment Series) 18001
Standard, in 1999. This series,
currently the only one that can
actually certify observance of
uniform quality standards in
workplace health and safety
management at an international
level, ensures more efficient and
specific control measures in
accordance with the law, more
efficient use of resources and
greater control of workplace
safety. Furthermore, it has been
extended to cover the full range
of activities and tasks performed
by the company and is based on
criteria recognised at a European
level.
The standard, when applied,
ensures the application of a
Workplace Health and Safety
Management System by means
of a cyclic sequence of operational
stages, as described below:
• assessing the initial situation;
• defining a company health
and safety policy;
• identifying the applicable laws
and regulations;
• identifying the hazards and
risks for all workers (internal
employees, freelance workers
and contractors);
• setting specific goals in line
with the general policy
commitments;
• drawing up programs for
achieving the goals (priorities,
times, responsibilities and
resources);
• defining program management
procedures and methods;
• making the company structure
sensible for the achievement of
the set goals;
• implementing monitoring,
checking and inspection
procedures to ensure that the
system functions; initiating
appropriate corrective and
preventive actions in relation
to monitoring reports;
• carrying out periodic reviews
to assess the system’s
effectiveness and efficiency in
achieving the set policy goals,
with the instigation of corrective
measures as and when
appropriate.
In order to comply with legal
requirements and ensure the
better management of workplace
safety, Berco has decided to
implement a safety management
system and obtain the OHSAS
18001 standard certification.
This standard, it should be noted,
sets out the company’s
responsibility for workplace health
and safety by means of its
voluntary compliance to a process
of continuous improvement,
which is organised and
implemented in the company
and certified by an external
agency.
Berco, which has already obtained
the environmental certification,
now intends to extend the
organised and certified
management system to another
area of fundamental importance,
i.e. the protection of workers’
health and safety in the
workplace, thus further confirming
its commitment, as a leading
company on the world market
and in the country, to being fully
aware of its ethical and social
corporate responsibilities.