FG to revive enforcement of occupational health & safety laws

Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige has said that the Federal Government will revive the enforcement of Labour laws in country, especially those bordering on occupational health and safety of workers and employers.

Ngige made the assertion when a delegation from the Nigerian Institution of Safety Engineers, a division of the Nigeria Society of Engineers, NSE, paid him a courtesy visit in his office, in Abuja.

Ngige noted that occupational safety and health had been neglected and taken for granted in the country for a longtime.

“We are geared up towards implementing and enforcing those laws, because we have a enough labour laws in this country to cater for occupational health and safety of the workers and the employers”.

He said,” Nigeria has enough laws but it is enforcement that is the problem. Today, Certificates of Occupancies, C of Os, are given, building plans are approved without input from occupational health and safety engineers.

“That is without the Occupational Health and Safety Department of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, so realising that, I decided to awaken that department.”

The minister said the ministry would soon recruit health inspectors, factories inspectors, among others to beef up the department the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).

He said that by this week, the Acting Chairman of Commission of FCSC would issue letters for the recruitment of those qualified to fill the vacancies in the Occupational Health and Safety Department of the Ministry.

Stories by Joy Ekeke