2 replies to this topic

[Vasilis Theodossiou]

Dear friends, 

 

in 7.1.4 the work environment is assessed. I was wondering if you have ever witnessed an auditor assessing psychological factors!

 

I will be brutally honest. I have never witnessed such a thing! Never...

To make things even worst: if an auditor witness bullying between food safety team members...will this trigger a discussion for non-conformance in 7.1.4? Just asking...

 

Thank you in advance friends for your time! No matter my experience I am totally sure that I will learn something more from your answers. 

 

Best Regards 

 

Vasilis

[Marloes]

Hi Vasillis,

I would say it is very difficult for an auditor to asses bullying or other ''stress'' factors in the two or three days they are on site.
If it is blatently obvious and you have an auditor who is mindfull of such things they might put it in their rapport.
But how will they ''convince'' their backoffice that this is what they witnessed? It is going to be a lot more difficult to prove

I have never seen of heard about it so far.

[Brendan Triplett]

Hey Vasilis,

 

While this section does have that listed it is primarily for the auditor to look at the work conditions like physical, social, psychological and environmental factors (such as temperature, lighting, recognition schemes, social and occupational stress, ergonomics, etc). It can also relate to conditions on how work is actually done (complex, repetitive, creative, interactive, team, etc.) in work processes and procedures.

 

There is a good site that I saw that has all of this spelled out:

 

Clause 7.1.4 Environment for the operation of processes (askartsolutions.com)

 

As for whether or not I have ever seen it?  The answer is no.  The auditor wants things that are tangible and provable not things that are subjective.  Hope it helps.  

 

Cheers!