CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Across all sectors of the economy, workers are sometimes, if not often involved in industrial accidents. Such accidents range from minor to fatal leading to the loss of life and limb. Industrial accidents are traceable to the period of Industrial Revolution which was the transition to new manufacturing processes from 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840 in England. During this period, crude machinery invented was used in industrial production.

Over the centuries machinery for the production of goods and services has improved tremendously but such improved machinery brought with it its own hazards to industrial safety. Stake holders in developed countries improve in their knowledge and skills to keep abreast with the rapid development while their counterparts in the developing countries seem to advance slowly in this regard, this may be as a result of the sociological and socioeconomic factors.

In Nigeria for instance, some workers as a result of unemployment and poverty do all manner of work to earn a living without considering the nature of the job and or the workplace environment which may pose some health challenges to them.

Employers are legally under a duty to see to the safety of their employees. Thus the English Court in the case of Wilsons & Clyde Coal & Co Ltd v English held that there are three main duties of an employer to the employee; provision of competent staff, adequate plant and safe system of work . However, employers tend to prefer the maximization of profits to the safety of the employees. This seems to be the reason why industrial safety is treated with much levity by Nigerian employers.

For example the fire incident that razed a plastic factory in Ikorodu, Lagos in 2002 when many workers were roasted to death at night because the Chinese owners of the company locked the workers in the factory and went to sleep at their secured resident guarded by policemen. Although members of the National Assembly and officials of the Federal Ministry of Labour visited the factory, yet the employers seem not to be held liable for the abrupt death of their employees as nothing seems to have been done to the employers .

On the 27th of April, 2015 101.9FM radio Station was bombed and about four media practitioners on their legitimate duties died in the blast. Yes, one would say it was a work place accident, but would it not have been avoided if adequate safety measures were put in place?

More recently, Yomi Olomofe of Prime Magazine was attacked and thoroughly battered at the office of the Nigerian Customs& Excise at the Nigerian- Benin border in Seme where he was investigating a matter .

These are a few of the several deaths and accidents that occur always in the various industries in Nigeria and beyond and in most cases little or no compensation is paid to the victims or their dependants. The issue of safety in Nigerian industries should be of paramount importance and industrial safety machines should keep abreast with the changing technological means of production of goods and services. In turn this should lead to improvement of working conditions and safe place of work.

Industrial safety can be achieved through concerted efforts of the employers and employees enabled by relevant legislation. In this regard the government enacts enabling law on safety to be enforced by relevant government agencies. Accordingly, this would make the employees adhere to the rules of industrial safety while working for optimal productivity. Employers should come to terms to this very important issue of industrial safety, knowing their liabilities when they are in breach. Employees should also imbibe the properly managed safety culture based on tested principles of workplace or industrial safety. This will lead to developing effective control measures and feeling a sense of responsibility for their safety and of others.

According to Fajana in his paper “Safety at Work: Issues and Challenges. “Accepting safety as a responsibility demonstrates a sincere concern for each employee, which establishes the foundation for an effective culture ”. This research is titled, “Appraisal of Employers’ Liability for Injuries Resulting from Breach of Nigerian Industrial Safety Laws”. It also goes ahead to discuss compensation and enforceability of the rights of the employees when these laws are breached.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The inadequacy of industrial safety measures has really endangered the Nigerian employees and their counterparts’ worldwide. This research wishes to expose the employers’ liabilities thus the rights of the employees as provided in the Nigerian labour laws and in other jurisdictions. This will go a long way to reawakening the consciousness of the employees rights and intimate them on how and where to seek redress when their rights are breached. 1.3 Research Questions

The study will answer three questions:

1. To what extent are employers in Nigeria liable for workplace injuries of their employees as provided under the Nigerian labour laws?

2. Do the present industrial safety laws fully protect the contemporary Nigerian employees from workplace injuries and what is the degree of their enforceability?

3. Are there any possibilities of improving the health of Nigerian workers and or eradicating industrial injuries in the work place environment?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the research are:

1. To determine the extent of the liability of Nigerian employers as provided under the Nigerian laws.

2. To evaluate the present Nigerian industrial safety laws and determine their protective and compensatory capacity to the contemporary employees.

3. To consider the possibility of reducing or eradicating industrial injuries at work place and make recommendations on how to improve industrial safety standards in Nigeria.

1.5 Methodology

The study adopts the descriptive and explanatory designs in the examination of the employer’s liability for injuries resulting from breach of Nigerian industrial safety laws. The research will also consider the compensation of the employees when these laws are breached and the degree of their enforceability. Reliance will be placed on primary source of data which include status and case law. Also secondary source of data will be placed on textbooks, journals, newspapers, internet and so on. No part of it will be empirical but just analytical.

1.6 Scope of Study

The scope covers the employer’s liability both at common law and up to the present day labour legislation on industrial safety. Comparing such with what obtains in some other select jurisdictions. The research will also consider the defences of the employers in breach of industrial safety laws and employees rights to compensation for injuries suffered as a result of such industrial safety breaches.

1.7 Organization of the Study

The study will be covered in six chapters, chapter one introduces the entire work with a background and general introduction on the topics a literature review and other preliminaries on the topic. Chapter two traces the history of industrial safety from common law era till date in Nigeria and other jurisdictions. Chapter three discuses remedy for breach of industrial safety laws. The remedy is compensation as provided by the employees Compensation Act 2010 and Workmen Compensation Cap W6 LFN 2004. Chapter five examines the enforcement of the rights of the employee and also considers the exclusion of the rights of an employee to industrial safety. The employee and also considers the exclusion of the rights of an employee to industrial safety. The research ends with findings, recommendations and conclusion.

1.8 Literature Review

Industrial safety in Nigeria seems to be a developing phenomenon. This could be the reason for the dearth of local works on the subject. The opposite seems to be the case in the Western countries or other jurisdictions where industrial safety has developed so much that labour law and employment law authors have lots of works on the subject. That notwithstanding, there seem not to be works on employers’ liability for injuries resulting from breach of industrial safety. However, some literary works were referred to in the course of this research and there are hereunder briefly reviewed.

Cotter B. et al in ‘Munkman on Employers Liability’ sees employers’ liabilities as the duties owed by employers to workers to take care to prevent personal injury (accident, injury and ill health) to the latter arising in or out of their work . The book also traced the history of industrial safety in European countries till date .It equally deals in passing with health and safety duties to people affected not as workers but as members of the general public e.g. local inhabitants, consumers, road users and so on.

Singh discusses the origin of industrial safety in Indian. According to the author, industrial safety came about as a result of the changes in the environment including the sophistication of machines and this led to insecurity at work places. This book also highlights the effective management of safety measures to optimize performance.

Jeremy Stranks: sees health and safety as a duty of employers to their staff. This duty enables managers to comply with the law and draw up health and safety procedure for their workplace.8 Pradeep Chaturvedi, an Indian author in his book, discusses safety in industries by using case studies analysis. According to him laws have been made but for the laws to be effective all the stakeholders should put hands together for its implementation. He holds the view that industrial injuries are avoidable if safety measures are sustained.