FG Tasks Stakeholders on Prevention of Workplace Risks, Hazards

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The federal government has urged employers of labour to help develop a comprehensive National Workplace Intervention Action Guide that would serve as a framework for mitigating the effects of occupational safety and health issues in Nigeria.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Salihu Usman, gave the charge at a Stakeholders’ Retreat on Workplace Intervention to Emerging Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Issues in Nigeria, organised by the Ministry, in Abuja.

A statement by the Head, Press and Public Relations, Patience Onuobia, quoted Usman as saying that a swift intervention was required to safeguard and promote the safety, health and well-being of workers in their various workplaces.

Usman, who was represented by the Director, Human Resources Management, Mrs. Catherine Lami Bulus, identified emerging occupational safety issues as incidents arising from changes in the world of work due to technological advancements, Artificial Intelligence (AI), demographic shifts, economic instability, rising insecurity, climate change and globalisation.

According to him, there was a need to create better working conditions in line with emerging workplace trends.

He noted that those emerging issues could often transform into disasters that required coordinated workplace intervention by multiple stakeholders.

Usman stressed the need for the identification, evaluation and control of emerging conditions in the work environment that could adversely affect the health, safety, and well-being of workers, noting that these emerging issues could often transform into disasters that require workplace intervention by multiple stakeholders.

He listed the objectives of the retreat to include identifying, analysing, and evaluating the workplace interventions to identifiable emerging occupational safety and health issues in the workplace; as well as formulating a Workplace Intervention Guide to these emerging occupational safety and health issues.

While welcoming the participants earlier, the Director, OSH Department, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Lauretta Adogu, said the retreat was aimed at identifying mitigation strategies, and analysing the proposed Workplace Intervention Guide to identifiable emerging occupational safety and health issues.