The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has said that the ministry would no longer tolerate the violation of legislations on Industrial Safety and Health by construction companies and other employers of labour.
Speaking when he received executive members of the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (IPSON) in his office in Abuja, Ngige said Factories Act and subsidiary legislations are being reviewed towards the promotion of an all-inclusive occupational safety and health protection.
“Whatever your profession is, you need to be alive to work;Employers must provide for the safety of its workers. These were issues neglected in the past, but as long we are in this Ministry we are going to reinvigorate the system using Factories Acts and its subsidiary legislations to promote decent work in line with standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO),” he said.
The minister also stressed the need for the ISPON to collaborate with the ministry in the on-going review of the National Policy on Occupational Safety and Health and in the development of the National Profile.
He said professionalism in Occupational Safety and Health practices in the country should be regulated through the institute that admit only professionals and ensure that they work in accordance with ethics of the profession.
“We need an Institute that will be able to support professional practice of Safety and Health; making sure that only competent persons in the field are admitted to practice as professionals,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, the National President of the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Ilodiuba said the purpose of the visit was to review the relationship between the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the institute with the aim of building a more robust, fruitful and sustainable relationship in the National Occupational Safety and Health System.
He expressed concern over the exclusion of ISPON in the National Policy on Occupational Safety and Health, an approved guiding document for the practice of occupational safety and health in Nigeria, thereby denying it of any role in the formulation of the policy.
