NSITF sensitizes worker on effect of workplace safety
NSITF sensitizes worker on effect of workplace safety
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has called on all employers of labour to adhere to safety issues in the work environment.
Branch Manager, Mainland, NSITF, Omotosho Eyitayo, said this when the branch embarked on a roadshow to sensitise and educate the general public on the need to ensure safety in the workplace, in commemoration of World Day of Safety and Health at Workplace, marked every April 28.
Speaking on the theme, ‘To build a positive safety and health culture, let’s act together, she quoted the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which estimated that workplaces that promote workers’ engagement while implementing a positive occupational health and safety culture had 64 per cent fewer safety incidents and 58 per cent fewer hospitalisation.
She said workplaces with positive health and safety culture make workers feel more comfortable raising concerns about their challenges.
This, she said, prompts management to be more proactive in providing solutions to the problem.
According to her, today is not about compensation, it is about prevention. It is to prevent the occurrence of accidents and injury at the workplace and to create a safe work environment.
She added that at the organisational level it was essential to foster preventive safety and health culture through Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) compliance and implementation of the OSH management system with a culture change.
In the Employee Compensation Scheme (ECS), she said: “There is still low patronage on the ECS when compared to the large workforce in the country. The Fund is carrying more awareness campaigns through various media, workshops and seminars to enlighten employers on the need to key into the scheme.
“Most organisations are too careless when it comes to safety, it is only when things happen we begin to run up and down. Let it be part of our policy and culture to put necessary measures in place.
“On the government side, the ECS began implementation in 2011 and covers all Nigerian workers. But today’s awareness campaign is to avoid hazards at the workplace. Employers should put it as part of their work environment culture. It is better to prevent rather than come for compensation. We aim to achieve zero accidents at the workplace.”
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has called on all employers of labour to adhere to safety issues in the work environment.
