Safety rules underway for commercial cyclists, work places
From Alifa Daniel, Abuja
THE gory of cracked skulls on the highways, the painfully high statistics of untimely deaths from head injuries as a result of motorcycle rides may soon be reduced if two laws being worked on by a Senator sail through. Also, safety will soon have prime consideration at the work places.
In the proposed bill for an Act to establish the National Agency for Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH), Senator Saraki Fowora, is asking that the agency be charged with the responsibility of enforcing the Factories Act Cap 168, 1994; the Workmen Compensation Act Cap 470, 1990 and any other law or regulation relating to safety and health.
Commercial motorcyclists who run foul of the law will be jailed or fined.
In the bill for an Act to make it mandatory for motorcyclists and passengers to wear protective helmets, the Senator wants it to become unlawful for a person to ride a motorcycle on a public road unless he or she wears a protective helmet.
In addition, the rider or passenger must ensure that the helmet fits properly with a chinstrap fastened under the chin. The helmet to be used must meet the specifications of the government.
Some of the functions proposed for NAOSH are:
- to ensure safety, health and welfare of persons at work against risks to safety or health arising from the activities of persons at work;
- to encourage and foster activities and measures directed towards the promotion of safety, health and welfare of persons at work;
- promote awareness of work place health and safety, collect, analyse, interpret, publish and distribute information relating to public health.
The agency is intended to have the right to enter premises, projects and such places as may be necessary for the purposes of carrying out its functions.
Employers of labour, under the proposed law, are expected to provide the enabling environment for their employees to be safe and free from preventable accidents.
The failure of a person to comply with the safety and health needs of its workers in the work place attracts a fine of N500,000 on conviction or a year imprisonment or both.
