Clause 5.4: Consultation and participation of workers

Requirement todayISO 45001:2018Remote overlay: ConsultationReported area

The organization sets up, runs and keeps processes through which workers at every applicable level and in every applicable function, and their representatives where they exist, are consulted on and take part in developing, planning, putting in place, evaluating and improving the OH&S management system.

What clause 5.4 asks

The organization sets up, runs and keeps processes through which workers at every applicable level and in every applicable function, and their representatives where they exist, are consulted on and take part in developing, planning, putting in place, evaluating and improving the OH&S management system. It supplies the mechanisms, time, training and resources this needs; gives workers prompt access to information that is clear, easy to understand and relevant; removes, or reduces as far as possible, obstacles to taking part; puts weight on consulting non-managerial workers on set matters, such as the needs of interested parties, the policy, roles, legal requirements, objectives, controls over outsourcing and procurement, monitoring, audit and improvement; and puts weight on non-managerial workers taking part in identifying hazards, assessing risks, deciding on controls, determining competence needs, communication, control measures, investigating incidents and corrective action.

Consultation is asking before a decision; participation is taking part in making it. The clause names the matters where non-managerial workers must be consulted and the matters where they must participate, and it requires the organization to remove what stops them.

Evidence for clause 5.4

An auditor will ask a non-managerial worker what changed because of their input, and look for the barrier the organization removed to make participation possible.

• Worker consultation Documented consultation and participation process
• Worker consultation Committee minutes and representative election records
• Worker consultation Evidence of consultation on the specified matters (policy, objectives, procurement, audit)
• Worker consultation Evidence of participation in hazard identification, risk assessment and incident investigation
• Worker consultation Records of barriers identified and removed (language, shift patterns, fear of reprisal)

Where clause 5.4 commonly fails

• Consultation limited to a committee that meets quarterly
• Non-managerial workers absent from risk assessments
• No evidence of consultation on outsourcing, procurement or audit programmes

What to do about clause 5.4 before the guidance lands

List the matters the clause names and show the record for each from a remote group. Add an asynchronous channel, a representative for remote workers and a feedback loop that reports what changed. Test it with a worker who is not on site.

For clause 5.4, do the work that will be right under either instrument. The current requirement for clause 5.4 is ISO 45001:2018, and the certificate, if you hold one, is issued against it. The clause 5.4 remote working preparation is an extension of the existing duty to a group of workers the system already covers, not a new system and not a reason to rebuild around a draft.

Read across from clause 5.4

• Clause 5.1
• Clause 4.2
• Clause 7.4.2
• Clause 10.2

← Clause 5.3 | Clause 6.1.1 →

Open the full index. The public record behind clause 5.4 shows the scope and the themes.