GOSHA

Chairman’s Report 2011

 

 

GOSHA continues to make progress, albeit a little slower than we would wish.

Our existing membership level has remained consistent and we add one or two new members each year.

Our activities are limited by the time our volunteers can give but GOSHA has had a good 12 months, maintaining communication on important topics, providing evening meetings with first rate speakers, maintaining an excellent website and focusing on the often neglected but seriously important topic of the disturbance of asbestos fibres in the workplace.

The Committee has been enthusiastic, with a good balance of knowledge and constructive input. Our philosophy continues to be to be non-complaining and to promote sensible, proactive, knowledgeable and appropriate workplace practices to help Guernsey to be a safe and healthy place in which to work.

Our Awards, held again in November 2010, highlighted a number of businesses which had done just that and achieved great results. It was fantastic to have Insurance Corporation as sponsors of the event. Without their support, the awards could not have taken place. In addition, we are very grateful to IOSH council member and former chair of IOSH Thames Valley, Roy Featherstone for judging the awards and providing the needed independence and professional assessment and Guernsey’s Commerce and Employment Minister, Carla McNulty-Bauer for supporting GOSHA’s awards and the work we do.

The awards winners deserve to be highlighted and many congratulations to all of them but especially the category winners:
 

 
Beckie Gabriel received the Chairman’s Award for her personal development in health & safety skills and her contribution to GOSHA – editing a superb newsletter. And we were finally able to present Terry Nash with a lifetime achievement award.

We have run a number of courses in 2011 aimed at providing managers and non-managers, contractors, operatives, manual and office workers with an overview of the requirements of the Guernsey Asbestos Approved Code of Practice. Asbestos is present in many buildings constructed prior to the mid-1990s. It is not easily identified and if fibres are inadvertently disturbed, the consequences for those who breathe them in can be dire many years in the future. Death from an asbestos related condition is very unpleasant and islanders die from this cause every year – we want this to stop. For some it is already too late. HSSD generously provided us with facilities and the opportunity to run the courses in conjunction with briefings given to their own staff and a number of island experts gave their time at minimal cost to give as many people the opportunity to be

 

involved. Courses were of one day duration. No small commitment for those who organised, tutored and ran them. I’d like to express sincere thanks on behalf of GOSHA to all who were involved, especially to Jonathan Webb who had the vision and determination to make sure the courses took place. There are opportunities in 2012 to receive training and I would encourage anyone who is responsible for the management of such matters (that’s most businesses in Guernsey! And the others need to be in a position to confirm asbestos is not in any way present in their occupied buildings or business activities) or who moves, alters, demolishes or refurbishes buildings or who maintains, services, installs or decommissions plant or equipment to be aware of your legal duties and your responsibilities to fellow islanders. Our website contains an e-learning package accessible to anyone at any time – it really is a good start for anyone who needs to know and Paul Adamson did a great job in compiling it – give it a go at www.gosha.org.gg.

Richard Brown, Chief Health and Safety Officer, continues to support GOSHA but rightly, given his responsibilities, remains outside our association. We are grateful to him for providing us with meeting rooms and input to committee discussions when requested.

The GOSHA Committee is

Andrew Mills - Chairman
Jonathan Webb – Vice-Chairman
Jon Coyde – Secretary
Gordon Snell – Treasurer
Steve Roussel
Mhairi MacGregor
Terence Rollins
Beckie Gabriel
Nathan Silk

They all deserve support and thanks for the time they put into making GOSHA a success and, in this part of my summary, I’d like to highlight Jon Coyde’s work as secretary – there is lots to do and Jon just gets on with it, preparing minutes and so much more on time and keeping everything running to schedule. And this year 2011 he achieved the highest IOSH designation of FIOSH – a great achievement demonstrating his knowledge and know how and we are lucky to benefit from all he does.

GOSHA could not exist without our members who generously support our friendly association. We have never been member exclusive in our activities and at times non-members benefit by attending members events, receiving newsletters and so on. It’s all part of the process of informing and providing a supportive forum for all businesses in Guernsey. We hope others will follow the lead of our members not only in joining in the future but in adopting better workplace practices for the benefit of the whole Guernsey community.

Andrew Mills
Chairman
October 2011

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Previous reports

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006