Grand Bahama Shipyard Limited (GBSL) has surpassed 1.45 million trade labour hours without a Lost Time Injury (LTI), marking another milestone in the company’s continued advancement of workplace safety.
The Shipyard reached the one-million-hour milestone on April 14, 2026, after working 210 consecutive days without a Lost Time Injury. That performance has continued uninterrupted, reaching approximately 1.45 million trade labour hours as of June 25.
The accomplishment also comes during one of the Shipyard’s busiest operational periods with projects often requiring multiple skilled trades to work simultaneously across different areas of a vessel. Safely coordinating these activities requires robust health and safety systems, careful planning, and a workforce committed to high standards every day.
The achievement represents the steady progress made through Grand Bahama Shipyard’s Safety Absolute Program, active safety committees, employee engagement initiatives, and continuous investment in training and workplace safety.
This progress has also received international recognition, with Grand Bahama Shipyard Limited receiving a Merit in the British Safety Council International Safety Awards 2026. The award recognized the company’s outstanding performance in protecting the health, safety, and wellbeing of employees and contractors throughout the 2025 calendar year.
Grand Bahama Shipyard was selected to receive a Merit award from 851 recipients representing 51 countries and a broad range of industries, including construction, manufacturing, energy, and utilities. The recognition reflects the continued development of a strong safety culture that strengthens customer confidence and reinforces the Shipyard’s position as a global leader in the ship repair industry.
“Our customers trust us with complex assets, our employees trust us to provide a safe workplace, and our community trusts us to operate responsibly,” said Chris Earl, GBSL CEO. “Those expectations are earned through thousands of decisions made every day, often when no one is watching. Surpassing 1.45 million trade labour hours without a Lost Time Injury reflects the choices our people continue to make that prioritize safety and the standards they hold themselves to.”
Mark Burrows, Health and Safety Manager at Grand Bahama Shipyard, said the milestone is the cumulative result of many improvements working together rather than any single initiative.
“I don’t believe there is one single reason we’ve reached this milestone,” Burrows said. “It’s the result of a lot of small improvements brought together over time. We’ve strengthened our standards, improved our processes, invested in training, increased leadership visibility, and worked hard to ensure incidents and near misses are properly investigated so that lessons are learned rather than repeated.”
Burrows believes one of the most meaningful indicators of progress has been the growing momentum behind employees taking ownership of safety in the workplace. “More individuals are willing to speak up, stop work when something doesn’t look right, challenge unsafe behaviours, and take responsibility not only for their own safety but for those working around them. To me, that’s a far better measure of our safety culture than any statistic.”
The Shipyard’s Safety Absolute Program reinforces key safety principles and encourages employees and contractors to identify hazards, raise concerns, and intervene before incidents occur. Supported by a shipyard safety committee and engagement at all levels throughout the organization, the program continues to foster a culture where prevention, accountability and continuous learning are shared responsibilities.
Looking ahead, the Shipyard will continue investing in targeted safety training and workforce development initiatives including confined space entry, working at height, lifting operations, and mobile equipment safety, and the continued development of supervisors and the Shipyard’s Emergency Response Team.
For Burrows, however, the milestone represents progress rather than completion. opportunities to improve. What gives me confidence is the commitment I see every day from our people to make tomorrow safer than today.”
(Photo courtesy of Renaldo Simms for Basefoot Marketing)
(Photo courtesy of Renaldo Simms for Basefoot Marketing)
(Photo courtesy of Renaldo Simms for Basefoot Marketing)
