Apprasial of Employers’ Liability for Injuries Resulting from Breach of Nigerian Industrial Safety Laws

Abstract

Safety is one of the most important needs of man today. Safety at workplace on the other hand is paramount and cannot in any way be ignored. Many vibrant and resourceful person have lost their precious lives and some have suffered permanent and temporal incapacities just because safety measures were not put in place. The June 3rd 2012 ill- fated Dana Airline crash in Lagos which claimed a lot of lives and the recent crashes that could have been averted if the aviation sector had taken the required safety measures. No matter the monetary compensation that the country and or the airlines pay, it is nothing to be compared to the emotional trauma the incident had caused. More so, in other industries, people are dying daily all because of absence or inadequate safety measures in place. It is therefore very expedient to pursue industrial safety with all vigor to avoid the drastic waste of human resources in our industries. Employers should come to terms with the provisions of the law and know their liabilities. When industrial safety is breached, employees should know their rights to safety at workplaces, how to seek redress where their rights are breached and the compensation due to them as provided by the law. All these necessitated the title of this discourse thus “Apprasial of Employers’ Liabilities for Injuries Resulting from Breach of Nigerian Industrial Safety laws”. The study adopted descriptive and explanatory designs and found that industrial safety laws in Nigeria are not adequate to meet up with the contemporary industrial safety demands. Employers capitalize on that and neglect this all important aspect of industrial life. Poverty, ignorance unemployment to mention a few worsen the already decrepit situation and thereby subject the work force into the pit of desolation. Proactive and preventive measures should be put in place as it remains the best strategy to overcoming industrial injuries. Chapter one is a background and general introduction on the topic, a literature review and other preliminaries on the topic. Chapter two traces the history of industrial safety from the common law era till date in Nigeria and other jurisdictions. Chapter three discusses the liabilities of the employers as provided in the laws. Chapter four provides the remedy which is compensation for breach of industrial safety laws as provided by the Employees Compensation Act 2010 and Workmen Compensation Act, Cap. W6, LFN, 2004. Chapter five x-trays the enforcement of the rights of the employee and also considers the exclusion of the rights of an employee to industrial safety. The study ends with recommendations and conclusion.