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    OHSOccupational Health and Safety

    Also known as: OSH, OH&S, Occupational safety and health

    Definition

    Occupational Health and Safety, also called OSH: protecting workers' health and safety at work by preventing injury, ill health and disease.

    Editorial definition: The QHSE Standard, updated 3 October 2026 · https://qhsetech.com/glossary/ohs

    Scope: OHS covers workers' health and safety, without environmental compliance. Duties come from national law, and the wording of the term varies by body and country.

    Example for your evaluation: Follow one injury and one health surveillance result to see which records are shared with managers and which stay restricted.

    Sources checked: . Examples are editorial illustrations.

    What the ILO, WHO, EU-OSHA, OSHA and HSE mean by occupational health and safety

    The ILO describes occupational safety and health as protecting lives, preventing harm and ensuring that every worker can do their job in safety and dignity. It records that in 2022 it recognised a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work, and it names the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) as fundamental conventions. Its guidelines on OSH management systems, ILO-OSH 2001, say the employer is accountable for and has a duty to organise occupational safety and health, that the guidelines are voluntary, not legally binding and no replacement for national law, and that applying them does not require certification.

    WHO uses the shorter phrase occupational health and describes it as an area of work in public health that promotes and maintains the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations. It lists occupational medicine, nursing, ergonomics, psychology, hygiene and safety among the disciplines involved, and it names environmental health among the other national programmes to coordinate with. EU-OSHA's page on European directives uses the abbreviation OSH and says Article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union lets the EU adopt directives on safety and health at work and that Member States may set stricter rules, so requirements vary across the EU.

    In Great Britain HSE calls the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety, and lists general duties of employers, employees and certain self-employed people. In the United States section 5 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to provide employment and a place of employment free from recognised hazards and to comply with occupational safety and health standards made under the Act. None of the pages opened treats OHS and OSH as different fields; the word order differs by body and law. This page is general information, not legal advice.

    Sources opened :

    What an OHS record set holds in software

    • A written OSH policy, dated and signed by the employer or the most senior accountable person, with the roles and responsibilities allocated under it.
    • Hazard and risk assessments, with each control placed in the ILO guidelines' order of priority: eliminate, control at source, design safe work systems, then personal protective equipment.
    • Records of work-related injuries, ill health, diseases and incidents, with their investigations.
    • Records of workers' exposures and of surveillance of the working environment and workers' health, kept confidential while workers can access records about their own working environment and health.
    • Evidence of worker participation: consultation records, committee minutes and the response to workers' concerns.
    • Monitoring results, both active (do controls meet defined criteria) and reactive (injury, ill-health and incident data), and the corrective actions that follow, with root cause and an effectiveness check.

    OHS, OSH, EHS, HSE and QHSE

    OHS and OSH are the same field in a different word order, and OH&S is a third spelling. EHS and HSE, as the glossary entry for EHS notes, add environmental management, and HSE can also name the British regulator, the Health and Safety Executive. QHSE adds quality. The word environment in the OSH sources means the working environment: the ILO guidelines define surveillance of the working environment as the identification and evaluation of environmental factors that may affect workers' health. WHO likewise lists environmental health as a separate national programme to coordinate with occupational health.

    A hypothetical example: one quarter, two kinds of monitoring

    This case is invented to illustrate the record and describes no real company. A distribution firm with two depots logs, in one quarter, 9 incidents with no injury, 4 injuries and 1 case of work-related ill health, which is 14 events in all. Those counts are reactive monitoring. The firm also plans 40 depot inspections and completes 36, which is 90 per cent, and that figure is active monitoring: it shows whether controls are in place, whatever the injury count.

    The ill-health case is a worker with a hearing change found at a routine check. The surveillance result sits in a restricted record that the worker can see, and the depot manager sees only the restriction applied to the job. The review lists the 4 inspections not completed, and one injury produces a root cause and a corrective action with an effectiveness check three months later. The register of legal requirements is kept separately for each depot, because one depot works under the 1974 Act and the other under its own Member State's law.

    Common misunderstandings about OHS

    • OHS and OSH are not two fields. The pages opened use the words alike, and the order differs by body and country.
    • OHS is not a certificate. ILO-OSH 2001 is voluntary and says applying it does not require certification.
    • The working environment is not the natural environment. In the OSH sources it means factors that may affect workers' health, which is narrower than environmental compliance.
    • OHS is not only injuries. WHO's description covers physical, mental and social well-being, and the ILO glossary lists chemical, biological, physical, work-organisational and psychosocial factors.
    • Injury counts are not enough. The ILO guidelines ask for both active and reactive monitoring, not only injury, ill-health, disease and incident statistics.

    How OHS relates to other glossary terms

    OHS is the shared core of several wider labels and of the management system standard.

    • EHS: adds environmental management to the health and safety work described here.
    • QHSE: adds quality to the same set of disciplines.
    • ISO 45001: the international management system standard for the same field.
    • Hierarchy of controls: the order of priority for preventive measures, which the ILO guidelines also set out.

    Records and evidence that usually exist for OHS

    • The written OSH policy with its date, signatory and review record.
    • Hazard and risk assessments with the controls chosen and the order of priority applied.
    • Injury, ill-health and incident records with investigation findings.
    • Exposure and health surveillance records held under confidentiality rules.
    • Consultation records: committee minutes and responses to workers' concerns.
    • Inspection, audit and management review records, with corrective action closure.
    • Training and competence records for each role.

    What a software tool needs to capture for OHS

    • Separate access for individual health information and site-level safety data.
    • One register that links each control to the hazard it addresses.
    • Event records that separate injury, ill health and no-injury incidents.
    • Active-monitoring tasks, such as inspections, tracked beside reactive counts.
    • A legal requirements register by jurisdiction, with source and date.
    • A route for workers to raise concerns and see the response.
    • Corrective actions with root cause, owner, due date and effectiveness check.

    Catalog profiles documenting incident management

    The list comes from the incident management rule used by the EHS software guide. It does not show that a product holds health surveillance or worker consultation records, which should be checked against your own list of duties.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “EHS Management” or “Safety Management” or assigned primary category “EHS Management” or “Safety Management”, with a sourced incident management capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Tekmon pays for a sponsored placement (above); its place in this list follows the same rule as every entry. How lists are ordered

    All 57 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.

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    Frequently asked questions

    Is OHS the same as OSH?

    In the pages opened, yes in practice. The ILO and EU-OSHA say occupational safety and health and shorten it to OSH, and HSE writes occupational health and safety. None defines them as separate fields.

    How is OHS different from EHS, HSE and QHSE?

    OHS covers workers' health and safety. EHS and HSE, as this glossary defines them, add environmental management, and HSE can also name the British regulator. QHSE adds quality.

    Is OHS a legal requirement?

    Duties come from national law, such as the 1974 Act in Great Britain, EU directives applied by each Member State and the OSH Act in the United States. ILO-OSH 2001 is voluntary guidance and needs no certification.

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