Clause 8.1.3: Management of change
The organization sets up processes to put in place, and keep under control, planned changes, temporary or permanent, that affect OH&S performance.
What clause 8.1.3 asks
The organization sets up processes to put in place, and keep under control, planned changes, temporary or permanent, that affect OH&S performance. These include: new products, services and processes, or alterations to existing ones (such as where workplaces are and what surrounds them, how work is organized, working conditions, equipment and the workforce); changes to legal and other requirements; new knowledge or information about hazards and risks; and advances in knowledge and technology. It looks at what unintended changes lead to and acts, as needed, to limit any harmful effects.
Change is the most reliable source of new harm. The clause covers permanent and temporary change, and the unintended changes that follow a planned one.
Draft 8.1.5 Management of change, from clause 8.1.3. The management of change requirement moves from 8.1.3 in the 2018 edition to 8.1.5 in the draft contents. The new 8.1.3 is Occupational health and the new 8.1.4 is Return to work, so the number now points at a different duty.
Evidence for clause 8.1.3
An auditor will pick a recent change, including a temporary one, and ask for the risk assessment before it went live and the review after.
- Change managementManagement of change procedure covering all listed change types
- Change managementChange risk assessments before implementation
- Change managementRecords of unintended changes reviewed and mitigated
- Change managementChange log with approvals
Where clause 8.1.3 commonly fails
- Change control limited to plant modifications
- Temporary changes and workforce changes not assessed
- No review of unintended changes after incidents
What to do about clause 8.1.3 before the revision
Update every reference from 8.1.3 to 8.1.5 before the transition. Widen the trigger list to workforce, organization, temporary and digital change. Record unintended changes after the event and what was done. Keep a change log with approvals.
What the record shows for clause 8.1.3
An auditor working on clause 8.1.3 will start with Management of change procedure covering all listed change types. The failure this record sees most often is Change control limited to plant modifications. Both are carried into the kit as row 28, with an owner field and a dated action.
Read across from clause 8.1.3
Read the next clause in the group, or open the full index. The revision map shows the draft structure.
Source for clause 8.1.3: ISO 45001:2018, clause 8.1.3, 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.