FG, OPS on collision course over NSITF fee hike

Indications emerged, yesterday, that the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector, OPS, may be on collision course  over the proposed increase in the levy employers pay to the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, under the Employees’ Compensation Scheme, ECS.

Currently, under the Employees’ Compensation Act, ECA, 2010, employers pay one per cent of the total emoluments of employees’ monthly payroll as a compensation levy to the scheme.

Although the proposed rate of increase has not been made public, the OPS warned that any further increase could lead to job losses and factory closures.

Under ECA 2010, the one per cent contribution from employees’ total monthly payroll to the Employees’ Compensation Fund, ECF, is used by the NSITF to pay compensation, death benefits, rehabilitation costs, financial support, and medical assistance to employees injured in the course of work, among other mandates.

Speaking at the Safe Workplace Intervention Project, SWIP, yearly stakeholders’ interactive enlightenment forum and awards ceremony, organised by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the NSITF, and Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, called for a review of compensation.

She also expressed concern over the “peanuts” paid to families whose beneficiaries died in the course of workplace accidents.

The minister said: “A safe workplace is not optional; it is a legal requirement. Going forward, there is also need to review our legal framework to ensure that it adequately reflects the value of workers’ lives when accidents result in fatalities.