Freeport-McMoRan recently stepped up to a new international standard that will help ensure the health and safety of employees across its worldwide operations.
Called ISO 45001, the new international standard for management systems of occupational health and safety provides a framework to increase worker safety, reduce workplace risks, and enhance health and well-being at work. It replaces – and goes beyond – the company’s previous certification that was phased out as a safety standard for companies.
While it might be a new framework, it doesn’t reinvent the Health and Safety wheel. Rather, ISO 45001 works with what the company already has developed.
“The age-old question is: Does your system work for you, or do you work for your system? The change to ISO 45001 demonstrates our commitment to pursue excellence and best support the health and safety of employees with systems that work for us,” said Josh Olmsted, President and Chief Operating Officer-Americas.
A key aspect of ISO 45001 is its proactive path to improve health and safety performance accomplished through a system that emphasizes clarity, use of meaningful data and enhanced collaboration.
Health and Safety Management System
“Ultimately, the purpose of our health and safety system is to make sure every employee doing a job – no matter what the job is – fully understands the associated risks, how to manage those risks and the tools available to do so,” said Mitch Kruger, Director-Corporate Health and Safety, Smelter, Rod and Refining. “The system should help employees stay focused on what matters as well as support continuous improvement. It should not distract from our work by being confusing, unclear or siloed.”
The company’s previous certification for OHSAS 18001 had provided a perfect transition to ISO 45001, said Rodrigo “Martin” Salazar, Superintendent-Health and Safety Management System.
“This should not feel like a whole new set of forms or new things to do. It should feel like a better, more efficient way to do what we already do well,” Salazar said. “We’re building clarity around our processes, and we’re using data and technology to foster enhanced collaboration between different groups to drive better health and safety decisions.”
Going with the Best
ISO 45001 is designed to identify best practices for managing safety in the field and helping ensure employees have the most updated information and training. This included making sure all the company’s guidelines and processes for reducing employee risk are clear, current and relevant, starting with the Occupational Health and Safety Management System Manual and part of the three-year certification process to ISO 45001.
“With any system you have for years, you can collect a lot of additions and modifications, and people can tend to overcomplicate things,” said Justin Taylor, Health and Safety Manager-Tyrone. “What we did was update and streamline the manual to clearly capture all the work that we need to do and ensure we are providing a clear process for how that work always should be performed to minimize risk.
ISO 45001 also supports increased collaboration between health and safety pros and operations and maintenance groups in the field – and has an additional focus on health in the field.
“The stronger focus on health within ISO 45001 includes managing the risk of chronic exposures to dust, noise, etc., which can have long-term effects as well as creating a workplace environment that positively contributes to employee well-being and quality of life. Having a system in place that supports this aspect is critical to our overall health and safety success,” Salazar said.