Last updated on 30 September 2026.
In brief
The first revision of ISO 45001 since 2018 has been through its Draft International Standard ballot, which ran from mid-June 2026 for twelve weeks and closed on 09 September 2026. The result has not yet been recorded: ISO still expects the new edition in the first half of 2027, and a three-year transition is expected to follow. [1][2][3] For the first time the actual changes are visible, and they are best described as moderate but pointed: new definitions, a stronger focus on worker well-being and health, and a requirement to manage a controlled return to work after injury or illness. [3][4] None of this is a surprise if you have followed the direction of travel, but it does turn a general expectation into concrete wording an auditor can check against.
What is changing
Three new definitions are added to the standard: work-related well-being, disability, and external provider, the last of which replaces the 2018 term outsourcing. The definition of occupational health and safety risk is also substantially revised. [3][4] Definitions matter because they set the scope of everything that follows: once well-being is defined, the standard can require you to manage it.
New requirements appear in three areas. First, occupational health, with a process expected to protect the health of workers, not only their physical safety. Second, a controlled return to work following injury or ill health, so that reintegration is planned rather than left to chance. Third, enhanced controls for externally provided products and services, tightening the old outsourcing language. [3][4] Alongside these, the draft places a stronger emphasis on work-related well-being, gives greater consideration to workforce diversity, and expands hazard identification to reflect modern ways of working, including remote and hybrid patterns. [3]
Certification bodies rate the overall extent of change as moderate, though more extensive than the parallel revisions to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. [3][4] In plain terms, this is an evolution of the 2018 standard rather than a rebuild, but it moves health and psychological well-being from the margins into the body of the requirements.
The timeline you can plan against
The revision process began in 2024 and reached DIS stage in mid-June 2026. The ballot, in which national member bodies review the draft, comment and vote, ran for twelve weeks from 16 June 2026, and ISO's own project record moved the standard to close of voting on 09 September 2026. [1][2] It is now shut, but the outcome is not yet public. Three weeks after the close, on 30 September 2026, ISO's catalogue record still shows stage 40.60, close of voting, with none of the three possible results entered: approval for registration as a Final Draft International Standard (40.99), a second DIS ballot (40.93), or referral back to the committee (40.92). [2] That gap is normal rather than a warning sign. ISO 45003, the psychosocial guidance standard from the same committee, closed its own DIS ballot on 04 November 2020 and had its approval recorded on 15 January 2021, about ten weeks later. [5] At DIS stage the structure and intent of a standard are largely settled, even if some detail may still shift in response to the comments just received, so this is the point at which planning becomes sensible rather than premature. The next lifecycle step to watch is whether the draft is approved for registration as a Final Draft International Standard, which is the first hard signal of whether the expected 2027 publication holds. Publication is expected in 2027, with a transition period expected to be three years in line with the recent ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 revisions. [3] A three-year window sounds generous, but organisations that leave the work to the final year tend to scramble, which is exactly the pattern a managed compliance record is meant to avoid.
Why this reaches South Africa early
South Africa has no legal obligation to adopt ISO 45001, but many local businesses meet it anyway because their customers require it. Suppliers to multinationals, and firms tendering for large contracts, are routinely asked to hold current certification. As the revised standard, the European Union and the International Labour Organization converge on psychosocial risk, health and changing work patterns, those contractual expectations will arrive well before any change to the OHS Act. [3] An employer who treats well-being and health as real management topics now is preparing for both the standard and the customer, not only the auditor.
GRC Shop view
This is guidance and interpretation, kept separate from the sourced facts above.
We read ISO 45001:2027 as confirmation, in an international standard, of the same shift South African enforcement is already making: from proving that a policy exists to proving that a system works, and from managing physical hazards alone to managing health and psychological well-being as well. The new return-to-work requirement is a good example. It is not enough to record that someone was injured; the standard will expect a planned, controlled reintegration, which only a live and dated record can evidence.
Our practical suggestion is modest and low cost. Do not rewrite your management system for a standard that is not yet published. Instead, over the three-year transition, make sure the everyday evidence exists: current registers, dated risk assessments that now include psychosocial and well-being factors, and a simple, written return-to-work process. An employer who keeps that record live will find the transition is a review, not a rebuild. That is the whole point of a managed compliance platform: the evidence is already there when the standard, the auditor or the customer asks for it.
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Abbreviations
- DIS: Draft International Standard
- EU: European Union
- FDIS: Final Draft International Standard
- ILO: International Labour Organization
- ISO: International Organization for Standardization
- OHS: Occupational Health and Safety
- SME: small and medium enterprise
References
The sources below are external links to third-party websites. We link only to publicly accessible pages and check periodically that the links still work.
[1] LRQA, "ISO 45001 revision update: DIS ballot now open", Jun 2026. https://www.lrqa.com/en-au/latest-news/iso-45001-revision-update-dis-ballot-now-open/
[2] International Organization for Standardization, "ISO/DIS 45001: Occupational health and safety management systems, Requirements with guidance for use", 2026. https://www.iso.org/standard/89698.html
[3] DNV, "Draft Version of ISO 45001:2027 Released", 03 Jul 2026. https://www.dnv.com/news/2026/draft-version-of-iso-45001-released/
[4] BSI, "ISO 45001:2027 Changes Explained (DIS guide)", 2026. https://www.bsigroup.com/en-US/insights-and-media/insights/blogs/iso-45001-2027-changes-explained/
[5] International Organization for Standardization, "ISO 45003:2021 Occupational health and safety management, Psychological health and safety at work, catalogue record and lifecycle", read 30 Sep 2026. https://www.iso.org/standard/64283.html