Effective implementation measurability in a health and safety management system

The Consolidated Act regarding occupational Safety and Health is mainly characterized by a systemic approach to safety management. The core of this systemic vision is the exemption of responsibility attribution for companies that adopt and implement a health and safety management system in an effective way (Italian Legislative decree 81, 9 April 2008, Art. 30). An index that can evaluate the effective implementation of OHSMS adoption has already been introduced in recent studies. This paper shows how this index can be applied into a Company and which information can be collected, useful to determine the effective implementation of the management system, with relation to its specific sector, in order to allow exemption from responsibility, in case of unpredictable accident, and to accord further reduction of assurance premium. Only the exemption of responsibility for companies with an effective implementation of OHSMS, together with an adequate incentive policy, can significantly improve occupational safety. © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London.