Work place is a complex environment where various factors influence the suitable rewards for employees’ efforts and services provided. In their pursuit of maximizing productivity and minimizing operational costs, employers may inadvertently undermine the safety of their workforce. While generating profits is essential for business sustainability, neglecting the health and safety of employees can ultimately be detrimental to employers themselves.
Finding this balance formed the fulcrum of discourse at the recent occupational safety and health summit in Abuja. In her keynote address, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Dr Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, declared that the well-being of Nigerian workers is fundamental to the country’s prosperity and growth, underscoring the belief of the organised labour movement that ‘labour creates wealth’.
The Minister of State admitted that Nigeria faces significant challenges in occupational safety and health, ranging from inadequate safety standards to limited awareness creation and training, unreported industrial accidents, occupational diseases, weak legislation, and policy enforcement.
The good news, according to her, is that the Federal Government is committed to changing the narrative by bringing together diverse stakeholders to promote the adoption of a ‘safety-first’ mindset and encourage the development of a resilient safety and health culture in organisations and industries.
As part of steps aimed at discouraging occupational hazards in the workplace, the Minister disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment has lined up various activities for the summit to promote a safe and healthy working environment.
“These include exhibitions, paper presentations, and discussions by key stakeholders in the safety business. By addressing key risks and emerging issues in the world of work and sharing knowledge, experiences, and innovative solutions, the ultimate goal is to build a comprehensive National Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management system that is effective, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive.
She maintained that by prioritising mental health in the workplace, employers and employees can thrive at work and in life.She added that the Federal Government is consistently taking proactive steps towards achieving a safe and healthy working environment through national programmes, legislations and collective agreements on Occupational Safety and Health in line with the ILO agenda for decent work.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, said the ministry is addressing the work environment by initiating programmes and projects to facilitate work adaptation for the workers and improve the working conditions and environment. These, according to him, include modifications of the job, the equipment, and the working environment that will allow workers to perform effectively and safely.
He added that this also involves reducing the physical workload for an ageing worker, providing special equipment for workers with sensory or locomotor impairments, or fitting equipment or work practices to the anthropometric dimensions of the worker.
Pate explained: “The Ministry is also introducing programmes which are essentially general health promotion programmes that include such elements as health education, stress management, and assessment of health risks. These are aimed at changing personal health practices such as alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, diet, and physical exercise, to improve overall health status, reduce absenteeism, and reduce Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) at workplaces.”
He insisted that the steps being taken are all in line with the key international targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and WHO’s conventions, treaties, policies, visions, missions, and recommendations, as well as national Acts and laws which relate to occupational health and safety at the national and sub-national levels.
The Minister also noted that the steps have given strategic direction to the federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and other stakeholders on the practice of OHS and also in improving national productivity through a consistently high level of health among workers in all occupations by promoting a healthy environment for the Nigerian workforce that is safe to live and work in, and to ensure access to occupational health and safety services to every working individual within Nigeria.
Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Office in Nigeria, Mrs. Vanessa Phala, stated that there is a loss of about three million lives to occupational accidents and diseases yearly. She stated that beyond the physical and moral suffering, accidents and illnesses constitute economic losses, which represent nearly four per cent of GDP worldwide.
“All these accidents and illnesses result from risk factors that could have been avoided by developing strategies to achieve a safe and healthy work environment. That is why the tripartite constituents of the ILO adopted on June 10, 2022, during the 110th ILC, an amendment making the safe and healthy working environment one of the fundamental principles and rights at work, with Convention C155 (on occupational safety and health) and C187 (on the promotional framework for OSH), which have become the fundamental conventions,” she stated.
Phala noted that the decision further calls out the various actors in the world of work on the numerous dangers to which workers are exposed in the workplace and on the need to act together to better control the risks of industrial accidents and occupational illnesses, which constitute harmful consequences on workers and their families but also on the productivity of companies and the development of the national economy.
Indeed, the combined provisions
Conventions C155 and C187 offer a great framework for implementing the ILO’s global strategy for occupational safety and health in a systemic management approach based on the principles of continuous improvement.
She lauded Nigeria for ratifying the two conventions before they became fundamental rights.
Since 1994, Nigeria has been engaged in the management approach with the ratification of Convention 155 and the adoption of its first national OSH policy, which the implementation has enabled to bring progressive changes in improving the working conditions and living quality at the different workplaces in the country.
Nigeria also ratified Convention 190 on violence and harassment at work, which constitutes an important achievement in the process of protection against psychosocial risks and mental health issues in the world of work.
However, Phala noted that despite the efforts already made, the work on occupational safety and health remains immense, hence the need to strengthen the mobilization of all OHS stakeholders in promotion and advocacy initiatives like this maiden national summit on OSH in Nigeria.
She mentioned that the central theme, ‘Strategic Occupational Safety and Health Management System for Sustainable Preventive Cultural Development’ is one of the key concerns of the ILO’s strategy in occupational safety and health.
