The Lagos State Government on Thursday charged construction companies to get construction insurance that covers their workers and operations.
Lanre Mojola, Director General Lagos State Safety Commission, spoke at a one-day training on Safety, Health and Hygiene for Artisans in Lagos State, with the theme: “Safety Compliance at Construction sites.”
According to him, the training workshop was organised to enlighten company owners that they owe their artisans and workers a duty of care and ensure that they were adequately insured.
Mojola added that the training was in line with the mandate of the Commission to ensure people were trained on safety protocol and practices.
The DG said the training was devoted to construction sector, saying the commission had picked artisans across the different associations, from electricians, bricklayers, welders on how they could ensure safety on their sites and be informed about Insurance schemes.
“There are several types of insurance that will be appropriate, for them, there is Employers’ Liability Insurance, Insurance of Public Building and Insurance of Building under construction, depending on the type of contractor or the contract.”
“The whole message is that they need to ensure that whatever job they take, they are insured, in the event that anything happen and the risk has crystalized what do they fall back on? That is the message we are passing across to the associations.” he said.
He stated that the commission is teaching them basic safety etiquettes and practices on how to reduce accidents which occur daily on construction sites.
Mojola quoted the International Labour Organisation as saying that 30 to 40 percent of the accident at work place were constriction related.
“And overall about 2.3 million accident occur ever year and out of this, we have about 6,300 that are fatal and we want to reduce accident as much as possible at construction sites,” he said.
The DG urged the participants to make judicious use of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at their various construction sites to reduce hazards.
“We are preaching the message of PPE to them, they must reverse the practice of ignoring the use of this protective equipment.
“For them, it is for us to pass the basic knowledge in terms of organising their work area, identifying hazards and risks that are inherent that can cause injury and lead to fatalities.
“Part of this is to let them know that if they lose that limbs they won’t be able to work, so they need to continue to wear their Personal Protective Equipment” he said.
Director of strategy, Safety Advocates of the commission, Jamiu Badmus in his remarks admonished construction workers to stop, think before they Act.
He added that life has no duplicate, saying that “safety begins with you, the man you see when you look at the mirror is responsible your safety, we should all support the government, work safe, live safe.”