January 2020 COR Communication

In this issue:

2020 Audit Year
Use of External Auditors

2020 Audit Year

All members who hold COR certificates, will be sent a letter providing information of where the organization is within the COR audit cycle and what is required for 2020.

COR Audit cycle – what year is your organization in?

COR Certificates have a COR certification number. This number is the COR expiry date plus 4 unique numbers. For example, if your audit data gathering ended May 6, 2019 your COR certification number would be 20190506-XXXX.

Members with COR certification number beginning with the year 2017, such as 20170506-XXXX, this is the COR Recertification year, which means:

Members with COR certification number beginning with the year 2018, such as 20180506-XXX, this is the second COR Maintenance year, those beginning with the year 2019, such as 20190506-XXXX, this is the first COR maintenance year, which means:

NOTE: If your organization is multi-site, all sites must be included within the scope of the audits within the 3-year cycle. Members cannot use the same combination of sites used for the last COR recertification audit. If you are unsure of which sites should be included, please contact CCSA for assistance.

Action plans in lieu of Maintenance audits

To be eligible for action plans, the employer must meet the following criteria:

The employer must have completed one full, three-year COR audit cycle and successfully completed a re-certification audit.
The employer must have achieved a 90% overall score on the re-certification audit.
The employer must have no less than 150 employees.
The employer must apply in writing to the Executive Director of CCSA prior to March 31 of the calendar year for permission to use an action plan in lieu of the maintenance audit and provide the Action Plan before approval will be given.

If you believe your organization is eligible for an Action plan, please email request to COR@ab-ccsa.ca

Use of External Auditors

External auditors conducting the COR audits must be CCSA-approved and certified external COR auditors, from outside the organization being audited. CCSA will only accept certification and/or recertification audits only from auditors named on the CCSA-approved external auditor list.

All External Auditors performing audits for the CCSA shall be free from conflict of interest.

A conflict of interest for External Auditors is defined as:

Someone auditing their own work;
Work in which they played a vital part in the development of a Health and Safety Management System;
The auditor or a member of the auditor’s corporate group must not have been employed by, or been in a direct contractual relationship with the employer within the twelve-month period preceding the audit, except for the following:
delivering standard CP-developed training courses,

delivering generic training courses (in either group or individual employer settings),
providing other services not directly evaluated by the audit instrument

The auditor or a member of the auditor’s corporate group should not have a personal relationship (e.g. family members, close personal friends) with any key employees or members of the management group at the operation being audited where that relationship may be perceived to influence the results of the audit.
In COR maintenance years, certified auditors may both develop and audit an employer’s health and safety program.

External Auditors cannot perform audits in two consecutive years for the same employer, nor can they complete the COR recertification in two consecutive CORs cycles.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding use of external auditors, please do not hesitate to contact CCSA at COR@ab-ccsa.ca

Happy New Year, the CCSA would like to wish you all the best for 2020!