Revisiting the legal framework of safety at work and compensation for injuries in Nigeria

Abstract

The need for the protection of a nation’s workforce from work-related accidents, injuries, diseases and deaths on one hand, and the prompt payment of adequate compensation upon the unfortunate injury or death of a worker, whether in the private or public sectors, are subjects that can never become mundane. Thus, this paper made it its purpose to search and interrogate the legal rules governing these critical labour issues in Nigeria. This is with a view to understanding how far-reaching these legal rules go to provide legal safeguards for employees engaged in works that may sometimes result to loss of lives and limbs at the workplace. The paper found that while the legal rules making provisions for the safety of employees to which they apply, fall short in many respects of the kind of positive law presently required to guarantee safe places of work in contemporary times, the legal rules on compensation for work-related injuries appear to have pushed the boundaries towards bringing to bear a simple, equitable and accessible compensatory framework for work-related injury, disability and death.