ISO 31030 provides organisations with a framework for managing the risks associated with business travel and strengthening their duty of care towards travelling employees.
For US organisations, travel risk management can also have important legal implications. Employers need to understand the risks their people may face when travelling for work and demonstrate that reasonable measures are in place to assess, manage and respond to those risks.
Developed by GSA Global with US law firm Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello P.C., this whitepaper explores ISO 31030 in the context of US law and considers the potential civil, regulatory and criminal implications when an employee or other person suffers harm connected with work-related travel.
It also examines the responsibilities organisations may owe to employees and others, the legal options that may be available following an incident and the potential regulatory risks businesses should consider as part of their travel risk management arrangements.
ISO 31030 and Travel Risk Management
Ideally, businesses that require their employees to travel regularly should also have proportionate, periodically reviewed, and monitored compliance policies and procedures in place to help to mitigate the risk of such an incident, and to assist them in responding to any incidents that do take place.
ISO 31030 and Potential Legal Liability
Compliance with the ISO standard could have a variety of potential evidential implications in civil and criminal proceedings. Companies that send employees to places in the U.S. outside of their home location or to foreign destinations will want to ensure travel security risk management policies are reviewed and enforced in accordance with ISO 31030.
For example, the ISO recommends the following regarding accommodation selection: “where an individual or on-site assessment is considered appropriate, an organization should use competent internal or external assessors.”2 Since the ISO 31030 is an industry standard developed by experienced international experts, adherence to this provision could
be beneficial in demonstrating that a business has assessed and managed overseas accommodation risks to the highest possible benchmark. Non-compliance might be detrimental evidence in a civil or criminal assessment of liability.
