 Welcome back to The Breakfast here on PLOS TV Africa. Final conversation this morning is on World Workplace Safety and Health. It's a happy world day for safety and health at work. The annual day is observed on the 28th of April and raises awareness on the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. Here's a look at what it's all about. Annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work is observed on the 28th of April to raise awareness on the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. It is a campaign intended to focus attention on creating and promoting a safety and health culture that can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries. The International Labour Organization started observing the day in 2003 in the face of rising incidences of workplace accidents and diseases. It is estimated that 500 million people suffer from such hazards annually and 2.3 million succumb to the accidents and work-related illnesses. That is an average of 6,000 deaths every day. This year, the World Day for Safety and Health at Work focuses on leveraging the elements of an occupational safety and health system as set out in the promotional framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention 2006. The International Labour Organization will take this opportunity to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue on the importance of creating and investing in resilience, occupational safety and health systems. It will also be drawing on both regional and country examples in mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 at the workplace. In Nigeria, there are more than 164,000 confirmed cases of the disease. This indicates an urgent need for companies to observe and follow the requirements for the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Each of us is responsible for stopping deaths and injuries at work. The government is responsible for providing the infrastructure, laws and services necessary to ensure that workers remain safe and that enterprises flourish. This includes the development of a national policy and program. It also includes a system of inspection to enforce compliance with occupational safety and health legislation. Employers are responsible for ensuring that the work environment is safe and healthy. Workers are responsible for their own protection and that of others. It's also their responsibility to know their rights and participate in the implementation of preventive measures. Work hard, observe all COVID-19 safety precautions and stay safe. Happy World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Happy World Day for Safety and Health at Work and we're wishing that to all Nigerians and everyone who's watching us this morning. We'll say good morning to our guest Michael Ogul, his HR expert. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much and good morning. Morning to you. This is not a very familiar discussion around Nigerian workplaces. Mostly because a lot of Nigerians are used to just whatever it is that they see, they take at the office. So let's start with talking about how much we lack in our Nigerian work environment. How much do Nigerian workers lack with regards to health and safety and the respect for Nigerian workplaces? Okay, thank you so much for that question. And I would say that the awareness, like you rightly said, it's on an average basis. So if you take a workplace that has about 20 employees, for example, maybe about five to eight of them will be aware of safety principles, safety measures, and safety procedures. However, we have a lot of manufacturing companies in Nigeria that are very safety conscious and very safety aware. For example, you have Nigerian bottling company PLC. You have several bottling company PLC. Where before you enter these factories, you are giving a safety briefing, and then you are giving personal protective equipment before you enter the factory. However, we also have a couple of safety guidelines enshrined in our labor and employment laws, like the Factory Act, the Employee Compensation Act, just to mention a few. Okay. Well, I've been to a couple of those factories, like you mentioned, and yes, I agree that those things do exist. But one thing that I also believe is lacking, besides these companies, they all have international head office branches where I believe those safety rules and regulations trickle down to their offices here in Nigeria. Besides that, Nigerians are aware, really, of what a safe working environment should be like. Do Nigerians demand enough of those safe working environments? Thank you so much. And to be very honest, I will say that very few Nigerians are aware of their rights in terms of safety. That is not to say that they cannot demand for a safe working environment, but because their awareness is low, a lot of them cannot make those demands on their employers. And when the introduction was reeled out about the World Health Safety Day, as enshrined by the ILO, you would realize that COVID-19 has been classified as an occupational disease in the recent reports on occupational safety and health as released by the ILO. So their awareness is very low. However, both government employers and HR practitioners and even safety professionals have a lot of work to do to carry this awareness and let people know that they have a right to a safe working environment. All right, Mr Ogul, I want us to, you know, break this down for the layman to understand. While we're saying that Nigerian workers and even workers all over the world have their rights to health and safety at work, what exactly do we mean? Could you help us break this down into, you know, the basics? So what would it mean for there to be health and safety at work? Okay, thank you so much. Let's start from our local laws. The Niger Labor Act puts it that the employer has a duty to provide a safe working environment. What that means is that the environment must be safe. The tools that the employer uses to work does not expose them to hazard risk. You know, also the employer must put in place insurance, you know, policies that will ensure that if there is a workplace accident, such employee who is involved in an accident must be taken care of. Also, there is the duty on the employer to ensure that there is continuous training, continuous enlightenment around safety rules, safety procedures, and finally, the provision of personal protective equipment. These are just some of the basics. All right, and go back to when you spoke about COVID-19, because it obviously opened up a lot of conversations about the safety of health workers, and of course has changed, you know, I believe a lot of the way that we work here in Nigeria Inclusive has also opened up the space for remote working and for people to be able to work from home. And so how would you say that, you know, the Nigerian workspace has been able to adapt to have a safer working environment in the face of a pandemic? Thank you so much for that question. And so when we look at the COVID-19 pandemic, it happened on all of us in Nigeria. Even globally, there was no playbook for any company to adapt. So most of the things that we began to do as employers and employees were things that we did as we learned to adapt. However, let me put it on record that a lot of employers began to change their mode of working and they adapted almost immediately. So I can tell you some of my colleagues who work in other companies have rotational shifts. So it's not everyone that comes to work every day. And for those who are on site, social distancing has been observed. They are giving personal protective equipment like nose mask. And for those who work in factories, they are giving protective gloves and all of that. So a lot of organizations really adapted. If we take a scale of one to 10, we can say eight out of every 10 organizations has adapted. Even some of the traditional organizations who said remote working is impossible. I've had to use technology to make their work more efficient and effective. So you mentioned a bit earlier in our conversation, some laws we have in Nigeria that provides for health and safety of Nigerian workers. Well, in terms of how it applies in the practical world, how would you rate the level of compliance to these laws, especially by Nigerian employers, to their staff? Okay, thank you for that question. And I would rate the level of compliance a five out of a 10. The reason is because safety is a worldwide phenomenon, regardless of what the primary mode of business the organization is involved in. So I've been to a lot of factories and some of them observe safety regulations. But if you go to other companies who are not involved in manufacturing, they barely have safety protocols. So the level of compliance is a five out of 10. Can it be better? Yes. Can Nigerians, what kind of things can Nigerians sue their employers for? In what ways would you say an Nigerian can take advantage of the labor laws and seek justice if he feels like his life was threatened in the workplace or his safety was threatened in the workplace? Can you give us examples? Okay, one of the examples I would like to cite is in the Workman's Compensation Act, which is now the Employee Compensation Act revised 2010, there's what we call mental stress or mental duress. And so an employee can actually sue their employer if they feel that they have been put on that mental duress or mental stress. So that's one of the examples enshrined in our laws. Of course, there are also other things the employee can sue for, workplace accidents that happen on site. And then also accidents that happen when the employee is on his way to work. So these are some examples of cases where an employee can ask for compensation or go to court. So duress. Yes. I took a look at the Employee Compensation for Workplace Injury in Nigeria and legal remedies. So indeed, I was really surprised to see that an employee can actually sue a company if they don't do this. They're actually entitled to compensation if they get an accident on their way to work, on their way to get lunch, if they've been put under mental stress. But I want to really ask about the applicability of these laws. Because in a situation where an employer would dare to tell an employee, this month we're going to pay all of you half salaries and you can do nothing about it, what really can an employee do about that? So that's a very dicey question. But let me also let you know that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which is the Superior Court of Recony, has actually passed judgments on issues that you have raised in this question. There have been awards of people who had proven cases of mental duress. There have also been cases of people who have been compensated for accidents and all of that. Now coming to the issue of salary cuts, an employer cannot just cut salaries arbitrarily or unilaterally. They need to engage their employees to say, this is what is happening in the business, what would you suggest we do? Because there is a contract of employment and that contract of employment dictates what happens and how the employment relationship proceeds. So if the employer wants a salary cut, they need to engage their employees. So that's the way forward. Lastly for me, can an employee seek compensation if he or she is sexually assaulted in the workplace and the company doesn't protect them or anything like that? How do these laws protect employees from sexual harassment and assault? Yes, so when we go back to the ILO Convention that was referenced when the introduction was read out, Nigeria is a signatory to the ILO and so a lot of the ILO conventions have been ratified by Nigeria and the National Industrial Court, which is the Court of Superior Recony, has been empowered to import international best practices when it comes to determining cases around sexual harassment, victimization, bullying, retaliation and all of that. So yes, if an employee has proof, such an individual can seek redress at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria. All right, so Mr Ogul, basically the summary of what we said today is that Nigerians or workers even globally have a right to their health and safety at the workplace and that they even need to go step forward to research and find out what their rights are. I mean they need to know what they are entitled to, what compensation they deserve and all of that and also importance for them to seek redress in the court of law when their rights are breached. I mean that's basically what we're saying, isn't it Mr Ogul? Yes, please. All right, fantastic. Thank you very much for your time, you're a human resource expert. Thanks for speaking to us today. Thank you so much for having me. All right, so Wednesday, April 28th is the World Day for Workplace Health and Safety, read up on the laws, you know what you're entitled to in the workplace. Like you said, don't let your employers just habitually just cut your salaries, you know, without, you know, due explanation and things like that. Yes, mental stress. Some of the things that, you know, a lot of Nigerians have to deal with, know people who have to continue to fight off MDs and general managers and, you know, people higher, you know, in higher positions in the office who continue to make sexual advances towards them and when they complain, the, you know, company does nothing. How many people can even complain? You know, you hide in chain, you want to save your job, all these considerations. So there's a lot, you know, that Nigerians need to learn to demand a safer work environment and stress, man, Plus TV Africa needs to unstress me. Anyway, thanks a lot for, for, for staying with us all through this Wednesday morning. It's been a very interesting time and we hope that you enjoyed it. If you missed out on any of our conversations this morning, quickly join us on our social media platforms at Plus TV Africa, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel at Plus TV Africa. Yes, thank you very much for keeping it to date with us. I am Annette Felix. And I am Osao Ghe Ogboa. See you at nine.