What GRI 403 is

GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety 2018 is GRI’s topic standard dedicated to occupational health and safety. It combines information on management and impacts with coverage and outcome data. It is used within the GRI Standards framework; it is not a certification standard for preventive management or an automatic declaration of legal compliance.

Defining who the report includes

Defining the workers covered matters as much as the final figure. The standard distinguishes employees and other workers whose work or workplace the organisation controls, as well as certain impacts linked to business relationships. The specific scope depends on each disclosure. Excluding a group without explanation can distort interpretation of the result.

Explaining management, not just counting harm

Reporting addresses aspects such as hazard identification, participation, training and occupational health services, alongside work-related injuries and ill health. Preventive analytics should connect these explanations with evidence. A year without recorded accidents does not itself demonstrate that every risk is well controlled.

Comparable and traceable data

Each indicator needs a definition, population, period and source. People must be distinguished from hours worked, and accidents from other events, according to the metric. Missing data or changes in coverage should be explained. Copying a rate from a local system without reviewing its definition may produce a figure that does not meet GRI’s requested disclosure.

Consolidation example

In a hypothetical example, a group receives statistics from several countries with different injury-recording criteria. Before consolidation, it documents equivalences and retains source figures. The report identifies its boundary and exclusions. It can then explain a variation due to improved recording without automatically attributing it to deteriorating prevention.

Relationship with other frameworks

GRI 403 can coexist with other reporting requirements, but shared subject matter does not make definitions identical. A mapping table should be maintained and versions reviewed. Reporting aims to provide understandable, substantiated information on impacts and management; preparing the report does not replace the actions needed to protect people.