Management of Employee Welfare With Emphasis on Industrial Accidents and Safety
Management of Employee Welfare With Emphasis on Industrial Accidents and Safety
Chapter One of Management of Employee Welfare With Emphasis on Industrial Accidents and Safety
HISTROICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Premier breweries PLC formerly Ltd sprang in n 1977 with just office some 20 year later it operate with heavy branch which includes eastern plastics ltd Emene premier farm Ltd
Even though the organization started off in 1977 its history dates back to 1974 when the government of the defunct east central state under chief Ukpabi Asika entered into a machinery supply/ plant design contract with the German company Messers brave chases for the establishment of brewery at Onitsha initially the plan was that the brewery should be a golden guinea brewery’s subsidiary.
However in January 25th 1976 Diamond breweries Ltd a fully independent company was incorporated while in December of that same year the name was changed to premier breweries Ltd. It was commissioned by col. John A Kpera (Ltd). Now brigadier the then military government of Anambra state on the 11th of March 1978
At set off the production capacity was 350.00 hectoliters. However after the first phase of the expansion programme which cost N15,00,000 (fifteen million Naira) capacity rose to 750,00 hectoliter and the second phase of the expansion programme costing N9,000.00 (Nine million Naira) bringing the capacity to 1,200,00 hectoliters. These increase has made the premier breweries the second largest producer of beer in the west African sub region.
A look at the Eastern plastic Ltd Emene reveals that it engage in the production of plastics like bottle crates etc. further more a land of about 100hectares has since been developed in Uzo- Uwani L. G. A ofEnuguState.
It most be noted that at start of operations there were just 80 worker (premier breweries PLC) But as at today it can boast of over 1500 employees directly and indirectly. The owners of this company include the following.
- AnambraStateministry of finance
- Nigeriaindustrial development Bank (NIDB)
- Nigeria bank for commerce and industry
- some other associations and publicities
but with the more into the PLC class the capital bask of the company has been raised through the sell of shares thereby introducing more member via share holding also the multi malt was launched during the very first international trade fair help Enugu in April 1990
The company has grow not just in capacity also in the qualifies of its products. Infact in this vein the standard organization of Nigeria (SON) awarded it the N15 certificate of quality barely five months after its entry into theNigeriamalt drink market
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The frequent enactment of laws in this country and perhaps other is in the world would have made industries to look deeply into cause of these accidents with a view to brining them to a minimal level.
Despite these laws we are not yet in effective control of our working system and environment sequel to lack of skilled manpower and the shortage was largely as a result of neglect of employees training and management development programs by manufacturing organization aimed at mastering the device for work. Also lack of the much- need education poses a great problem, for some could be highly skillful on the job but lack the reading ability to read instructional manuals tagged on the machines for safety purposes
Equally there is other problems it centers around companies complying with standard laws and enforcing compliance through a system of inspection and penalties therefore the shortage of funds to acquire brand machines and other safely devices also remain a great problem Some companies run short of much needed money to purchase these and so as an alternative they try to acquire second hand machineries and safety devices which can’t last long period of working times and that is no 100% guarantee on its safety. More so, industries lack the money to pay professional who will be employed to service and maintain the machine/ safety devices as use warrants.
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT PROBLEM.
In this age global economic diversification from the agricultural sector to the manufacturing sector or what we would call the industrial revolution there is no doubt that there is an increase in the number of industrial springing up in most of our metropolitan cities
To manyNigeriathis is of great benefit in terms of employment increase in production and promotion of economic growth. However development becomes a source of sorrows to many house holds industrial hazards in these companies have been inevitable. Inspite of several years of effort by the federal government to find ways of educing accidents, it still remain a serious problem “worldwide trends shows that while these has been significant reduction in total accidents in the past 15years injuries have increased not only in absolute numbers but also in rates per exposed workers. Judging from data of 14 industrialized countries the total number of injured people seems to be increasing yearly by 5%.
Here inNigeriait can be rightly said that in the first quarter of 1990 three were about 720 industrial accident casualties. These figures are quite alarming and close to N100.000.00 was spent for that three months only.
For the injured their families can’t be fully compensated for the loss; some are incapacitated for life and therefore can’t regain health and strength. A part from that human suffering linked with accident cannot be over emphasized. More so there is lot of time lost by other employee who stop work in sympathy of their injured colleagues cost of time lost by supervisor in investigating the real cause of the accident and reporting to employers remember the saying “time lost can never be regained”
Additional losses include lost to employer through employee welfare and benefit system and also cost due to be loss of profit on the injured workers.
On might be prompted to ask what really is accident well “accident has bee seen by various cadres of professionals and laymen and has been interpreted to mean unforeseen happening an unexpected occurrence which produces hurt or loss of life.
They do not just happen rather they are caused and at last majority of them are preventable be use of safely devices and proper working system. It is in the light of this that federal government has enacted different safety laws that would play preventive roles in reducing the rate of industrial accident.
They include:
- Work man compensation ct of 1942
- Environment safety law (e.g. of heating and lighting)
- total accident act of 1961
- health and safety at work act of 1974
- Nigeriafactory act of 1961 etc.
The question is of which extent has these government laws reduced the rate of industrial accidents?
There are still a lot of hazard in or manufacturing companies general. J.W Boley outline that accident are caused by employee’s errors supervisor error and management error and of course machine error. This view is supported many experts. From what been said if proper steps are not taken to identify and forestall the cause of these hazards and prevent adequate and workable safety laws there is the tendency that the rate of fatal accidents in our manufacturing concerns would continue to be on the increase. Thus this research work would attempt to bring out the actual causes of accidents and the frequency of occurrence. However slight reference will be made on the legal implication of these activities.