Extension to the implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System

In order to facilitate the implementation of the OSHMS, and also identifying the difficulties in its development, the Ministry of Labor, through the issuance of Decree No. 052 of 2007, amended Article 2.2.4.6.37 of the Sole Regulatory Decree (No. 1072 of 2005), in several ways:

- Segmenting by stages the execution of the OSHMS, determining five phases for its implementation, the activities that compose them and the person responsible for each one of them.

- To postpone the transition deadline for June 1, 2007, for the replacement of the Occupational Health Program by the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS).

Consequently, as of June 1, 2007, the progressive implementation of each of the phases should begin: 

• Initial evaluation;
• Improvement plan according to the initial evaluation;
• Implementation of the OSHMS;
• Follow-up and improvement plan;
• Inspection, surveillance and control.

The Ministry of Labor has yet to define the OSHMS implementation process, in accordance with the phases described above, and to determine the minimum standards for verifying compliance.

It should be noted that the Labor Risk Administrators (ARL) are in charge of providing advice, training, campaigns and technical assistance in the different phases of the implementation of the OSHMS. They are also obliged to submit biannual reports in June and December of each year to the Territorial Directorates of the Ministry of Labor on the development of the aforementioned accompaniment as well as on the degree of implementation of the OSHMS.