The Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Barrister Oluwaseun Faleye, has lamented that the country lacks proper data on workplace accidents.
He disclosed this when stakeholders from the legal profession converged in Abuja Monday at the Barcelona Hotels to deliberate on the operationalization of the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) and ways of enhancing its success.
He also said Nigeria’s occupational safety is plagued by huge informal sector of the economy, high risk sectors, and institutional culture of non-adherence to safety and non-compliance.
Faleye, who quoted data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to highlight the enormity of workplace accidents, said over 2.8 million workers die annually from occupational accidents and diseases while over 374 million suffer non-fatal injuries leading to long-term disabilities.
The global cost of poor occupational safety, he quoted, is estimated at 4% of global Gross Domestic Products annually.
He said workplace safety and social protection are not optional, adding that they are foundational to the country’s national development, economic productivity, and human dignity.
“They are not just moral
obligations, they are pillars of social justice and human dignity, they are pillars of Economic stability and national productivity. They are pillars of peace of mind for workers and risk mitigation for employers.
“When workers are safe, employers thrive and the nation prospers. In short, protecting workers is protecting the nation’s future,” he emphasized..
He acknowledged that the current Employees Compensation Act is a better law than the previous, adding that the Fund had made remarkable progress in delivering on its mandate.
The new and emerging challenges, he explained, necessitated a reworking of the laws to better meet modern needs.
He explained that the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010 established the ECS administered by NSITF to provide adequate and equitable compensation for workers who suffer work-related injuries, diseases, and disabilities including mental health.
He added that the Fund is mandated to provide compensation and support for the families of employees in case of any fatality.
Other services provided by the Fund, according to Barrister Faleye, are rehabilitation and empowerment after workplace accidents, but most importantly, prevention of workplace hazards.
He implored legal practitioners, especially judges, to help advance the cause; taking social protection as a matter of right, avoiding technicalities in interpretations and through advocacy.
Delivering a keynote address, Justice Benedict Kanyip, President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, thanked Barrister Faleye “for putting up this interactive session meant to be a robust engagement on employees’
compensation scheme (ECS) operations in Nigeria.”
He noted that although the
workshop is designed primarily for the benefit of judges of the
National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), the engagement is wide
enough to include Registry Staff of the Court, staff of the Commission,
lawyers and stakeholders as far as employees’ compensation is
concerned.
“Injury in workplaces is today a commonplace. Nigeria is expected to
adopt measures that prevent workplace injuries. And where injuries
do occur, to compensate for them,” he stressed as he explained that “Nigeria, by virtue of its membership
of the International International Organisation (ILO), is bound by these
twin objectives: to prevent, and compensate for, workplace injuries.
“It is for these that Nigeria ratified the ILO Occupational Safety and
Health Convention 1981 (C155) ratified on 3 May 1994 ; and the
Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (C187) ratified on 8 November 2022,” he said.
He said that any failure to extend compensation to all victims of occupational injuries would undermine Nigeria’s obligations under the C155 and C187.
He underscored the inalienable right of workers, saying:”A look at National Occupational Safety and Health Policy will show that Paragraph 4.1(d)
provides that the National OSH Policy applies to all Nigerian workplaces including formal and informal sector workplaces and covers the protection of workers and their representatives from
disciplinary measures as a result of actions properly taken to secure
safety and health at work.”
He also spoke on the weakness in the extant law.
He said: “Where an employer fails to remit his contribution as enjoined by section 33 of the ECA, it remains to be seen whether an employee, who is a victim of occupational injury but cannot claim from the NSITF under the ECA because of the non-remittance, can succeed against the employer for statutory negligence i.e. for failure to remit the contribution. Right now, only time will tell.”