GRI updates occupational health and safety reporting standard

Amsterdam — The Global Reporting Initiative has updated its occupational health and safety reporting standard, GRI 403, in an effort to address concerns over a lack of robust management, the organization recently announced.

“We saw that there was a need for a rigorous methodology for measuring OH&S performance based on leading, rather than lagging, indicators,” Judy Kuszewski, chair of the GRI Global Sustainability Standards Board, said in an Oct. 4 press release. “The Global Sustainability Standards Board set out to create a world-class reporting standard that emphasizes measures that prevent injuries and ill health, aligned with key instruments and with the latest trends in OH&S management.”

Among the changes is coverage of a wide range of workers, including those in the gig economy. The revised standard also focuses on workers’ recovery from occupational injuries, “leaving behind those measures that focus solely on lost time,” GRI states.

The standard includes disclosures for hazard identification, risk assessment, workplace health services, and worker participation and training, “which aim to protect workers from work-related injuries and ill health.”

Disclosures intended to help improve workers’ health off the job, such as dietary improvements or smoking cessation, are included.

The Project Working Group for the standard included representatives from the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, the International Labor Organization, and OSHA.

“The benefits of occupational health and safety are far-reaching,” the release states. “A healthy workforce is more productive and engaged. Promoting a healthy work environment also helps to attract – and hold on to – talented workers. Implementing the new GRI 403 standard will help drive improvements in the lives of millions of workers around the globe.”

GRI 403 is part of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, designed to be used by organizations to report their impacts on the economy, the environment and society, the standard states.