The Nigeria Industrial Social Trust Fund (NSITF) has paid N2.4 billion compensation to workers, who were victims of occupational hazards since inception.
Speaking at the organisation’s celebration of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work in Lagos, NSITF Regional Manager Mrs. Olufunke Aleshinloye said the organisation since the inception of ECA to March 2019, has paid N2,328,225,091.46 for 27,825 claims.
According to her, the NSITF has 338 dependants on its monthly payroll, 448 disabled beneficiaries and 54 disabled employees provided with prosthesis.
She urged employees and employers to buy into the vision of zero harm at workplaces to enhance productivity and national development.
She said: “Since 2003, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) observes the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28, capitalising on its traditional strength of tripartism among trade unions, employers’ organisations and government representatives alike.
“The ILO acknowledges the shared responsibility of key stakeholders and encourages them to promote a preventive safety and health culture to fulfil their obligations and responsibilities for preventing deaths, injuries and diseases in the workplace, allowing workers to return safely to their homes at the end of working day,” she said.
Mrs. Aleshinloye noted that the NSITF dream for the future of work was zero harm at workplaces, listing the steps toward achieving this to include, among others, training the minds of people to take ownership of safety; designing a safe system of work; enforcement of occupational safety and health standards in workplaces; keeping proper records and management’s commitment to safety and health.
The NSITF in pursuit of the Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010, she said, protects Nigerian workers in the private and public sectors from difficulties arising from workplace accidents by providing adequate and timely compensation for employees or their dependants for any death, injury, disease or disability arising from or in the course of employment.
She stressed that safe and healthy workplaces provided the consistency and reliability needed to build a community and grow a business.
To mark the day, members of the staff embarked on an awareness and sensitisation walk, from the office in Maryland, Lagos, towards the roundabout down to Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, sharing handbills containing vital information on safety and health to residents and passersby.
