Compensation for workplace accidents

Accidents at work places especially factory and warehouse, are common occurrence. And when they happen, many company managements, rather than do the right thing as stipulated by law, look for excuses to get out of their obligation.

Often, they trade blames and accuse the victim of negligence in order to absolve themselves and shy away from doing the right thing. And they usually get away with it because people are ignorant of the protective provisions of the laws in Nigeria.

There are many protections under the Nigerian law; employers are responsible for the safety of their workers at work and especially in a factory and aside making this a responsibility of employers, the law further provides remedies enforceable against the employer for certain injuries or diseases sustained at the workplace.

The law mandates employers to provide factory workers with the required training, maintain equipment in safe working order, keep floor from tripping risks, provide correct safety equipment and carry out risk assessments to prevent accidents and follow required regulations.

When accident occurs especially when it is from the negligence of the employer, the affected employee may demand compensation and this can be done in two ways; litigation or application for compensation under the Employee Compensation Act 2010

The Employee Compensation Act 2010 entitles employees to claim compensation for occupational diseases and injuries sustained from an accident at the workplace or during employment in laid down procedure; notification to employer within 14 days of the occurrence or receipt of the notification of the occurrence with details like name, time, place of occurrence, nature and cause.

Then, the employer must report the injury to the NSITF within seven days of the occurrence of the injury or death or receiving the notification of injury and shall state the name of the employee, time and place of death, injury or disease, nature of injury or death, name and address of accredited specialist that attended to the employee and any other information required by the board  in the form prescribed by the board and signed by either the employee or his dependent and must be made within a year of the occurrence of the injury or death.

An employee can institute a civil action in court against the employer based on negligence or any other legal principle.

Workers must know about these provisions to prevent being denied their rights by employers when accidents occur. Compensation a worker might be entitled to will reflect the severity of the circumstances like loss of future earnings and ongoing care needs.

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