The adoption challenges of new international organization for standardization in occupational health and safety management systems among contractors

Abstract

This study was carried out to explore the critical challenges encountered by the Malaysian contractors in adopting the new ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS). ISO 45001:2018 will replaces OHSAS 18001:2007 and therefore the transition timeline given is three years with the transition process required by the construction industry is expected to completed by March 2021. Designed to help organizations of all sizes and industries put in place a safe working environment for their employees, ISO 45001:208 is expected to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses around the world. The aims of the study were to show contractors’ awareness, contractors’ readiness, the essential barriers, and to propose strategies toward enhancing the ISO 45001:2018 adoption level among contractors. The study administrated (100) set of structures surveyed questionnaire for targeted respondents among Grade 1 to Grade 7 construction companies registered with CIDB which involved in the conventional civil construction. The collected data were analysed using frequency distribution and average index method and categorized according to the level of satisfaction or agreement and presented in the table and figures for straightforward interpretation. The results of the study show that, only 16.5% of the contractors already practices the new ISO and the following are still in progress to obtain their certification for ISO 45002:2018. The respondents with mean score of 3.59 agree that high cost of OHSMS implementation in the company is identified as the main challenges for the adoption of the new ISO. Finally, all strategies proposed to increase the implementation of ISO 45001:2018 among contractors in construction industry were agreed by the respondents. Among the top strategies are to provide tax reduction or exempted to those who implement ISO 45001:2018, strong commitment and enthusiasm from the top management and put ISO 45001:2018 as a requirement in the agreement between contractor and client.