Understanding Compliance Standards

What does it mean to be compliant?

The definition of compliant is "conforming to requirements." What does this mean for Safety Provisions?

If we claim a course is compliant with a regulatory body, that means that the course covers the specific safety guidelines outlined in the standards.

For example, an OSHA-compliant Confined Spaces course would cover all of OSHA's standards concerning confined spaces. A non-compliant training would not cover the relevant standards.

In our trainings, we claim that we are compliant with any standards listed on the Standards slide/graphic. This means that if you have a standard listed on the Standards slide, you must cover all the information the standard contains in that same training. Otherwise, we are being dishonest about the compliancy of the training. 

Regulatory Bodies

OSHA: The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is the main regulatory body in the U.S. Employers in the U.S. are legally required to adhere to all relevant OSHA standards.

Important: Never use the OSHA logo on any company publications (trainings, websites, etc.). This can give the impression that OSHA has agreed to endorse our products, which is untrue. 

 

ANSI: The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a U.S. company that publishes and sells standards. While it is an American company, it is globally recognized. Many countries do not have governmental standards organizations, so they follow ANSI guidelines.

Unfortunately, you have to purchase ANSI standards in order to view them. We cannot claim we are compliant with any ANSI standards that we have never seen. ANSI standards are often geared towards manufacturers and are therefore not relevant to our end-user.

Note: If an ANSI standard seems to have important safety information, talk with management to make a case for purchasing it.

 

CCOHS: The Canadian Center of Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) is a Canadian organization created by the government to promote safety and health in the workplace. It creates publications about safe work practices. However, it is not a regulatory body. We should never reference the CCOHS in any company publications. 

CSA: The CSA group operates similarly to ANSI. It publishes standards that apply to Canadian workplaces in the public and private sectors.

It publishes some standards for purchase, and others for free. Unless we've read the standard and developed a course around it, we cannot claim we are compliant with CSA standards that we've never seen. 

Provincial Standards: Canada does not have a main regulatory body like OSHA. Instead, each province has its own set of standards. We do have access to these standards, unlike ANSI. If you will be referencing these standards, make sure you have fully read them.