Consultation, communication and shared responsibility

ISO/DIS 45008Reported areaPublic record onlyNot published

The public record frames remote health and safety as a shared responsibility and names communication and consultation as an area the guidance addresses.

The consultation release says the draft guidance is intended to encourage shared responsibility between organizations and remote workers, helping to manage risks proactively and consistently in a wide range of real-world scenarios. Shared responsibility is not a transfer of duty. It describes a working arrangement in which the organization provides the resources, the system and the support, and the worker follows the arrangements, reports hazards and takes part in the assessment.

A consultation process built around a site meeting does not reach a distributed workforce. The worker may be in another time zone, on a different shift, using a different language or working through an accessibility need. The public record places communication and consultation among the areas the guidance is expected to address, and the current clause requires consultation at every applicable level and function.

The practical test is whether a remote worker can raise a concern, see it recorded and learn what happened. An asynchronous channel, a named representative for remote workers and a feedback loop that reports the decision are the minimum. The record of the consultation is also the evidence an auditor can read when the worker is not on site.

The same logic applies to external communication. A client site, a co-working space or a landlord may control access, fire arrangements and facilities. The public scope includes client sites and mobile roles, so the information exchanged with the host, and the emergency route, belong in the record.

What an auditor is likely to ask for

• Scope The remote population and locations, with the basis on which each is inside the system.
• Assessment The current assessment for each remote group, the method, the result and the review trigger.
• Control The control, who provides it, the record that it reached the worker and the check that it still works.
• Review The date and the evidence of the last review, and the change that will trigger the next one.

These are the records this site expects a reader to hold for the area. They are our reading of the public record and the current clause, not 45008 draft text.

Where it commonly fails today

• The remote population is not listed, so the assessment covers the site and misses the workers.
• The assessment is a one-off form with no trigger for a move, new equipment or a health change.
• The organization supplies a policy but not the equipment, the time or the support the policy promises.
• Reports from remote workers are not recorded, or are read as a performance problem.
• The manager is not trained to notice isolation, overload or withdrawal.

What to do now, while it is still a draft

Do not rebuild the system around a draft. Do the work that will be right under either instrument: name the remote population, assess the workplace and the work, supply the controls, record the check-in and the report, and put the legal position for each location on the register. If the published guidance differs, the process survives the wording change.

Read the 40 clause records Back to the public record