New Duty of Care & Risk Mitigation Standard

Today’s global organisations have increasingly large numbers of employees working as international assignees, expatriates and business travellers. These employees may find themselves in unfamiliar environments and situations, facing unfamiliar risks and threats. As a result, organisations have an increased duty of care to protect their employees.

BSI (British Standards Institution) responded to this increasing need and had announced the intent to create PAS 3001:2016, a fast-track standard to assist organisations in developing and implementing Duty of Care policies and practices.

Commissioned by International SOS, the world’s leading medical and travel security services company, the PAS will provide best practices for assessing risks to employees abroad and developing policies to mitigate those risks.

The Publicly Available Specification (PAS) will include clauses on assessing risks to employees abroad and developing appropriate standards and procedures around travel risk management (travel policies, traveller tracking, etc.).

Extreme and disruptive events will also be considered, based on the impact they can pose to staff safety and well-being. Issues will include political unrest, piracy, terrorism, disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.

A steering group of experts from industry, government, and academia will be responsible for the technical content of the PAS.

A Publicly Available Specification (PAS) is a sponsored fast-track standard that is developed through a consensus-building process facilitated by BSI. The draft title of PAS 3001:2016 is Working Abroad – The responsibilities of an organisation for health, safety and security – Code of Practice.

The PAS is for use by any organization of any size and sector that sends employees, workers, volunteers or contractors (and their families) abroad for work-related travel or assignment.

“Our goal at International SOS is to enable organisations to operate globally while mitigating health, safety and security risks to their people,” said Laurent Fourier, Regional Managing Director of International SOS Europe. “We lead the industry in Duty of Care thought leadership, and supporting PAS 3001:2016 is a natural evolution of concept to standard.”