There is only one small paragraph within the standard that talks about legislation. In other standards, there are whole clauses dealing with this. But this is quality and here is the excerpt;
‘5.1 Management commitment
Top management provides evidence of its commitment to the development and implementation of the quality management system and continually improving its effectiveness by
a) communicating to all personnel the importance of meeting customer as well as statutory and regulatory requirements,’
So the standard just tells us we need to communicate legal stuff. It does not provide a framework or guidance (of course you can get this from ISO 9004, but that is another blog!). You will need to determine to what depth you investigate what your legal requirements are. For most companies, the minimum would include; tax law, fair trading law, OHS and if you pollute, some environmental laws. But we digress, as you should retain the services of a good corporate advisor for this this subject.
However, we do have responsibilities to communicate (and if you are clever, review first) the organisations regulatory and statutory requirements. We would normally do this as part of external documentation and management reviews. How you do it is up to you and the level of risk exposure. Not easy huh? Just do it.
Now as an aside, when going through the certification phase of your quality management system, your auditor will keep a whether eye as they are charged with the responsibility to not ignore legal obligations. This means whilst they will not seek legal compliance, they shut down an audit if they discover an illegal operation or environment. Just be warned.
previous blogs;
http://johnmasonstuff.blogspot.com
http://john-mason-stuff.blogspot.com
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