The Federal Ministry Labour and Employment yesterday took sensitisation campaign to Gudu district of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT ) in move to facilitate the improvement of occupational safety and health performance in workplaces.
The programme was part of activities to marked the 2023 World Day for Safety and Health at Work, with the theme, “A Safe and Healthy Working Environment as a Fundamental Principle and Right at Work.”
According to the director, Occupational Safety and Health Department, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mrs Laureate Adogu, the campaign was part of strategies to implement national policy on occupational safety and health.
Even though the compliance level to occupational safety and health is not yet be high in Nigeria, she expressed conference that with the sensitisation going on, awareness of safety and health in workplaces especially informal sectors, will be improved.
She said, “We are here today to implement the National Policy on occupational safety in into both formal and informal sectors, there are some hazards that are inherent in such places.
We have penalties and people who do not comply normally we have instructors who go round the factories and there have been doing prosecution, prohibition, warning notices, we give cautionary letters. After each inspection, there is always a report and there is always a cautionary letters to all the occupiers”.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, ILO health officer Ojobo Ada said the ministry of labour need to do more for their workers in terms of helping their workers and as far as we are concern, they’re not doing much. ILO on our own we’ve been doing a lot to support them in that area.