Internal Audit program requirements

To clarify the requirement, in clause 5.4 d 8) in consultation and participation of workers, ISO 45001 does mention the consultation of non-managerial workers in the planning, establishment, implementing and maintaining of an audit programme per clause 9.2.2; however, there is no mandated process for doing this with only a requirement to provide a mechanism for consultation and participation (clause 5.4 a).

So, this means how you involve workers in deciding the internal audit program is up to you (you need to provide the mechanisms), and this consultation will differ form company to company depending on many factors such as number of employees. You can gather the non-managerial workers opinions through any method you desire, including a simple survey, asking strategic employees (such as a joint health & safety committee if one exists), asking work representatives (if they exist), etc,

No matter how you gather these opinions, some of the elements of an internal audit programme that you might want worker opinion on could include: importance of processes to determine frequency of audits, how audit results will be reported to workers, or by finding out what other factors the workers see as important.

You can find out more on consultation and participation in the article: How to meet participation and consultation requirements in ISO 45001, https://advisera.com/45001academy/blog/2016/03/16/how-to-meet-participation-and-consultation-requirements-in-iso-45001/