By Chisom Onuoha
The core message of the 2023 World Day for safety and health at work from Health and Safety Unit of Kagini branch of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) in Kubwa Abuja, to employers of labour is that safety at workplace is a fundamental principle and a fundamental right of workers. Therefore they must put in place preventing measures to safeguard working environment and ensure accidents and injuries free workplace.
Bumped into on Friday morning on the streets in Kubwa precisely, the unit led by it Head, Mrs Uzonwa Ogbe, were matching in colorful black and yellow attire, preaching the message of prevention of accidents and injuries at workplace by ensuring that safety and health principles are adhered to by employers of labour.
Asked to tell about the reason they were on the streets, Mrs Ogbe said; “We are celebrating World Health and Safety Day. And the best action for the celebration is to be on the streets to inform and educate employers oh labour and works alike the importance of safety and health at workplace. This is the health and safety unit Kagini branch of NSITF in Kubwa. We are creating awareness on the importance of taking preventive measures in the workplace is to avoid any form of accidents because the health and safety of workers is paramount to us.
“Basically NSITF is known as government’s employee compensation agency that pay compensation to victims of work incurred injuries and so on. What do I really mean? When workers have accidents injury in the course of carrying out your work, the NSITF come in to pay compensation. But today, we are not on the streets for the business of paying compensation. Our message today is on prevention before compensation, because I don’t think anybody would like to be compensated maybe for losing one arm rather than going home fully the way you came to work.”
On it is mostly her unit on the streets, she said; “This unit is a very critical unit in terms of creating awareness, educating employers and employees on the needs to create a safe working environment for their workers. For the fact that people come to work to earn a living to take care of their families, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be given proper care and prevented from accidents.
“So the core of our message to employers is that they should make working environment safe and conducive because it is a fundamental principle and fundamental rights of every human being to safe while at work regardless race, affiliation, political status. We are saying that safety is very paramount.
“While we are encouraging both government owned organizations and private sector businesses to key into NSITF occupational health and safety scheme and begin by making the contribution, we are most importantly calling on employers to take the issue of prevention of work place accidents serious and begin to do the needful by providing safety tools and making working environment conducive for workers.”
