Labour Raises Concerns Over Indecent Workplaces, Hazards

The country’s leadership has been charged to supervise and implement law against job hazards, especially farmers as the first step to economic growth lies in safety and security.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP,  the stakeholders cried out against continued killings, kidnappings of farmers across the country.

This is just as they charged the federal government to ensure strict implementation of ILO Convention 155, especially as Nigeria also has its own 187 Convention on workplace standards.

Expressing their worries over seemingly lackadaisical or glove handling of killings and kidnappings of farmers across the country, they described the renewed attacks as inimical to the survival of Nigerian workers across board.

Lamenting that, over 60,000 Nigerians farmers have been killed by terrorists and bandits, while about 155 were reportedly killed between July 1 and October 6, 2023 alone, the Labour leaders reminded FG that farmlands should not become death traps, and warned against food insecurity which could affect the country as a result.

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The deputy general secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Chris Onyeka also warned that the unchecked continued killings and kidnappings of farmers across the country metamorphosed into serious crises as most farmers are being denied access to their farmlands.

In the same vein, NLC Lagos State Council chairman, Comrade Funmi Sessi, called on employers of Labour to ensure workers safety, noting that, many people are being injured or maimed for life because of indecent workplaces, mostly factories whereby an unannounced number of casualties are taking place.

Responding to an update of an incident whereby a worker’s arm was chopped off in a factory in Ikorodu area in Lagos State around February 2023, Sessi said the management, after several confrontations with NLC bowed to pressure and helped to fix the arm with an artificial hand.

“There are several workplace accidents, we only know the victims that cried out for help. There was another one this year, but that management, having helped to give him an artificial hand, paid him off with N500, 000 out of which he bought Keke Napep and restarted a shop,” he stressed.

Recall that Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas a few weeks ago stated that over 60,000 Nigerians have been killed as a result of the incessant clashes between herders and farmers.

He also lamented that farmers and herders clashes which were hitherto seen as a regional or a confined conflict have taken a new dimension as it has expanded and grown into a wider conflict beyond the borders of many West African countries.

Recall also that ILO has disclosed that about 3m (three million) workers die  yearly due to occupational accidents and diseases, while 402 million people suffer from non-fatal occupational injuries.

A joint estimation by the labour organisation and the World Health Organisation (WHO), indicated that work-related diseases were responsible for 81 per cent of all work-related deaths, with deaths due to occupational injuries accounting for the remaining 19 per cent of work-related deaths.

The director general of the ILO, Guy Ryder, made this known recently in a message to mark World Day for Safety and Health at Work celebrated  every April 28.