Clause 4.2: Understanding the needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties
The organization identifies which interested parties other than its own workers matter to its OH&S management system; what workers and those parties need and expect of it that is relevant (their requirements); and which of those needs and expectations are already, or may turn into, legal requirements and other requirements it must meet or chooses to adopt.
What clause 4.2 asks
The organization identifies which interested parties other than its own workers matter to its OH&S management system; what workers and those parties need and expect of it that is relevant (their requirements); and which of those needs and expectations are already, or may turn into, legal requirements and other requirements it must meet or chooses to adopt. Amendment 1 (2024) adds a note that these parties may hold climate-related requirements, so the review considers, for example, regulator rules on working in heat or severe weather, client or insurer climate clauses, and worker concerns about climate exposure.
The clause separates three questions that are often merged: who matters, what they need or expect, and which of those expectations the organization turns into a requirement it must or chooses to meet. Workers are a party in their own right, not one row in a stakeholder table.
Draft 4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties, from clause 4.2. The draft title drops the words about workers and other interested parties, and the public summaries report an explicit requirement to take account of the diversity of workers when determining their needs and expectations. The climate note from Amendment 1 remains.
Evidence for clause 4.2
An auditor will test whether the register distinguishes workers by role and vulnerability, and whether any expectation was actually adopted into the legal and other requirements register.
- Interested partiesInterested party register covering workers by role, contractors, regulators, unions, clients, insurers and neighbours
- Interested partiesDocumented needs and expectations for each party, including any climate-related expectation identified
- Interested partiesRecord of which expectations were adopted as legal or other requirements and where they feed the 6.1.3 register
Where clause 4.2 commonly fails
- Workers listed as one undifferentiated group with no distinction by role or vulnerability
- Climate-related expectations of regulators, clients or workers not considered after the 2024 amendment
- No recorded decision on which expectations become requirements
What to do about clause 4.2 before the revision
Split the worker row by role, shift pattern, language, disability and remote status. Add the diversity characteristics the draft names and record how each changes a need. Show the decision that turned an expectation into a requirement, and the date.
What the record shows for clause 4.2
An auditor working on clause 4.2 will start with Interested party register covering workers by role, contractors, regulators, unions, clients, insurers and neighbours. The failure this record sees most often is Workers listed as one undifferentiated group with no distinction by role or vulnerability. Both are carried into the kit as row 2, with an owner field and a dated action.
Read across from clause 4.2
Read the next clause in the group, or open the full index. The revision map shows the draft structure.
Source for clause 4.2: ISO 45001:2018, clause 4.2, retrieved 18 October 2026. The draft note rests on the public DIS contents and the two named summaries; the requirement, evidence and gaps are written from the held clause record. Every source.