A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT STATE OF EMPLOYEES COMPENSATION LAWS IN NIGERIA WITH GHANA, SOUTH AFRICA AND INDIA

Abstract

Since the passage into law of the Employees Compensation Act in2010, countless cases of workplace accidents have occurred in Nigeria.Yet there seems to be no succour for the Nigerian worker as many stategovernments have either refused to register with or do not have the willpower to implement the legislation in their respective states. Some inthe private sector continue to call for the review of the funding patternof compensation for workers. With this scenario, it becomesincreasingly difficult to implement the Act in the country and thismeans that countless of workplace injuries will not be compensated orproperly handled as stipulated by the law. The aim of this paper is toexamine the implementation of the Employees Compensation Act andlike many other Acts that have come before it, to determine theimplementation level. The primary objective of this paper is to find thevarious challenges that may be militating against the effectiveimplementation of the Act with a comparative analysis of theimplementation mechanism in other jurisdiction. This paper found thatthe expressions by employees indicate that the EmployeesCompensation Act 2010 is a welcome development and a timelyintervention for the Nigerian workers. This paper therefore recommends that NSITF, the body saddled with the responsibility tomanage the funds, should start to implement the Act immediately byupdating their records and carry out public enlightenment campaignsto employees and employers in both the private and public serviceswhile paying compensation benefits to injured workers.