The Nigerian government has reaffirmed its readiness to ensure a safe and healthy work environment for Nigerian workers.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha stated this in Lagos when she led a team of Factory Inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Department of the ministry to conduct an inspection exercise to ascertain the level of Occupational Safety and Health compliance in some companies.
According to the Minister, a safe working environment that includes physical protection and care for the mental well-being of workers would improve productivity.
“We are advocating that every worker in Nigeria should be treated fairly including making sure that their health is cared and catered for. Employers should ensure that workers welfare and health should be taken into consideration.”
The Minister also warned that the government would not hesitate to sanction any company in breach of safety regulations and practices saying that the government was also interested in manufacturers’ compliance with ease of doing business right from their factories.
Giving her impression to the companies visited including Nestle Plc and Cadbury, the Minister expressed satisfaction commending their efforts in making their factories safe for workers and ensuring that women participation in the production process were safe.
“My impression is that so far so good. The companies are big players, they are people who have seen it all so I’m not surprised with their performance. I urge other companies that have not started taking the Occupational Safety of their workers seriously to do so. We are interested in the welfare of our workers and we are interested in safe workplace where every worker is growing as the company is growing, where companies will look inwards and make sure that the mental health of workers are taken into consideration and where workers promotion is not being stagnated for any reason,” said Dr. Onyejeocha.
She also stated that the final reports on the inspection would be digitally made available to the companies to help them improve where necessary, advising workers to be diligent and ensure they work to enhance productivity in their work places in reciprocation of what their employers are doing.
On her part, the Director of Occupational Safety and Health, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Lauretta Adogu harped on the need for more sensitization to workers for a better compliance applauding Nestle and Cadbury for ensuring that both workers and employers are compliant to occupational safety and health of workers in their companies.
“From all the places we visited, I observed that workers and employers are safety compliant. Their companies are doing well in terms of health and safety. I want them to continue to improve in the area of sensitization. I also want Nigerian workers to be safety conscious because a healthy worker is a productive worker,” she said.
The Health Safety and Encouragemental Manager of Cadbury, Mr. Bolaji Oyewo, and Evelyn Dike of Nestle Plc promised to consolidate the government’s efforts in ensuring safe workplaces for Nigerian workers.
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