The African Employee and Industrial Accidents: Thematic Evaluation and Projections for Safer Workplace in Nigeria

Abstract

Accidents claim not only valuable assets but also human lives, most times involving professionals who do not have immediate replacement. To identify and evaluate industrial accidents in organizational firms, a health facility of a large public organization with over 368 employee engaged in production activities was targeted in Southern Nigeria. Preliminary desk review of within-organization's security structures, in-depth interviews of on-ground situation on accident trend at workplace in an associated forestry (wood-producing) outfit bordering the study area as well as questionnaire administration to 162 employee (low and middle class employee) were altogether employed to generate relevant information. Questionnaire covered forms of industrial accidents, causes, individual employee accident history and employee socioeconomic background details. Identified accident causes were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using Varimax Orthogonal Rotation Method and scree plot to pin down top three forms of industrial accidents in the organization. In the results, six different forms of accidents were identifiable stemming from 10-13 varying causes. Major accidents reportedly result from employee operational attitude, technical errors and administrative lapses indicative of the level of preparedness and drive to control and manage emergencies and epidemics. The study therefore suggests public sector drive on work ethics, adherence and improvement in safety regulations and installations, frequent/periodic retraining as well as closer supervision of activity by superiors of all categories of employee.