IOSH hosts delegates from Macedonian OSH body

10 June 2011

Delegates from Macedonia’s key occupational safety and health body visited IOSH this week to share best practice and build links between the two organisations.

Macedonia Occupational Safety and Health Association (MOSHA) president Milan Petkovski was given a whistle-stop tour of IOSH on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 June, with presentations about its membership, training and international work, as well as UK legislation.

MOSHA is now over four decades old, and is one of the leading OSH organisations in the Balkans. IOSH’s New Accession Countries (NAC) Initiative aims to develop relationships with key health and safety bodies from the newest member states in the European Union (EU) – like MOSHA in Macedonia. The Institution is working with them, developing ways to deliver its courses in those countries and to find the means to share latest techniques in health and safety management.

Mr Petkovski said: “We believe that OSH is something that you should share, and the best way of learning is to learn from somebody who has different experiences from your own. So far on this visit we’ve learnt a lot, but this is only the beginning and I believe it’s the start of a very fruitful relationship. Over the next few years I hope that our co-operation will grow.”

Back in February, IOSH spoke at MOSHA’s conference in Struga, Macedonia, to which the Instutition’s members were also invited.

Mr Petkovski added: “For me, IOSH is the organisation that establishes standards in the UK and its members are willing to share their knowledge, particularly with international partners. We may speak different languages but we have a common language in OSH.

“We want to raise general awareness that safety is not expensive; it is an investment in better business which is more sustainable. We do face challenges, especially as many employers are being forced to spend less during the economic crisis. Unfortunately, this does mean people compromise on safety, but we are trying to make people understand that safety should be a culture that you live in.”

IOSH Networks and International Support Manager Chris Hayes, who has led the delegation during its visit to the UK, said the NAC Initiative was geared towards sharing best practice with new EU member states, to help improve health and safety in their workplaces.

She added: "MOSHA is a fantastic organisation that’s doing great things for employees in Macedonia and we want to work with them to push those standards and ideas even further.

“Sharing best practice does, of course, work both ways. And we will be looking at increasing the ways that members of both organisations are able to go forward and help each other in their respective plans for the future.”