VIOLATING PROVISIONS OF FACTORIES REGULATIONS CAN SHUT DOWN DIVING OPERATIONS – CASE OF SCORPION OIL SERVICES – NIGERIA
Karma Global is in the business of establishment and vendor compliance management. It has hundreds of elite domestic clients on its excellent service dispensing list. The expert staff on its roll deals with thousands of regulatory compliance acts on an India basis, some of the acts being state-specific while others are enacted by the Central Government.
Karma Management has now become Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd. It was incorporated in 2004, and has now completed almost 18 years of its existence.
As late as April 2021, Karma Global took a very bold step of venturing into foreign shores in terms of shoving up its business in countries like the US, the UK, UAE, Canada, the Philippines, and Asia.
It has already made its mark in terms of providing excellent services in the areas of payroll, outsourcing, recruitment and talent acquisition, and regulatory compliance.
In fact, the CVO and MD, Pratik Vaidya of Karma Global were selected by SME Forum to lead a Select US Summit last month where he took along a delegation of over hundreds of SME Members for business discussions with the authorities in the States as well as with the entrepreneurs and Innovators of many countries who were present in this forum.
Karma Global thus entails the compliances of global clients in these countries as well, and in keeping with the global scenario, it does keep a very hard track of global compliances all around the world and especially so, it keeps an update on what is happening as far as people, work and benefits are concerned.
SCORPION OIL SERVICES – NIGERIA – REPRIMANDED FOR ITS FAILURE
The Federal Government has set up the Diving Governing Board to implement the 2018 Diving at Work Regulations provisions. This development comes nearly two years after the Federal Executive Council approved the Diving at Work Regulation.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN who inaugurated the Board on Friday at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja said the Board would drive the enforcement of the regulations that will restore sanity in the sector and drive a sustainable growth agenda.
He announced the appointment of Julius Ugwala as Chief Inspector of Diving for the country. He said the inauguration marked the beginning of an era in which the flagrant disregard for the safety and health status of divers would no more be condoned.
He said the board, amongst its other functions, would furnish the sector with a code of practice that meets global best practices.
Lamenting the poor supervision of dive operations and insufficient penalties for defaulting organizations, the Minister said the industry had been stunted by poor standards and the resultant hazards that accompanied such an anomaly.
He however expressed confidence in the ability of the board to improve the sector through the strict enforcement of the regulations and monitoring of the industry’s operations
Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Yerima Tarfa, said the enforcement role of the governing board is paramount and called for strict compliance with the safety and health guidelines for an increase in productivity and national development.
The Chief Inspector of Diving, Julius Ugwala, congratulated the diving industry on the landmark development and thanked the Federal Government for its commitment to making the industry “efficient and globally competitive.”
He said a sustained collaboration between government and critical stakeholders gave birth to the regulations, which would now open up new opportunities for industry growth and the employment of Nigerian youths.
President of the National Association of Divers (NAPROD), Timothy Dagogo Minima, who is also a member of the board said the industry finally has a chance to grow, adding that NAPROD has been foremost in the campaign for the enforcement of the regulations.
He said indigenous divers had lost their lives and become maimed as a result of poor enforcement of safety standards; as a result, every measure put in place for their safety and advancement is a step in the right direction.
Safety, Health, and Welfare of Nigerian Workers as Entrenched under the Factories Act of 2004
The Factories Act of 2004, the Employee Compensation Act of 2010, the Minerals Oil Safety Regulation of 1999, and the Harmful Waste Act of 2004 are pieces of legislation that included provisions for the safety, health, and welfare of Nigerian workers beyond the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, and the Labour Act of 2004.
The Act also deals with the training and guidance of naive workers, in that, no person shall be employed at any machine or in any process that is likely to cause injury, unless he has been trained by a more knowledgeable person about the dangers involved.
The Act further states that factories shall provide a means of escape in case of fire and all escape routes shall not be obstructed.
The factories act also addresses the welfare of persons employed, which includes the supply of clean drinking water, made available in containers, renewed daily, and suitable clean washing facilities.
The findings showed that, in spite of the Factories Act provisions and other extant laws stipulating how workers’ safety, health, and welfare are to be catered for, the rate of workplace accidents is increasing.
Therefore, the findings recommended that a special task force be set up to ensure daily compliance, and the Ministry should be called to order for the failure of exerting corrective measures when necessary.
Federal Government takes the strictest of actions on Scorpion Oil Services over irregular diving operations offshore
The federal government has shut down the diving operations of Scorpion Oil Services onboard MV African Installer offshore Lagos for operating without the requisite approvals and violating the provisions of the Factories (Diving at Work) Regulations, 2018.
This happened due to a high-level vigilance exercise conducted by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, led by the Director of Factories of the Federation, who is also the Director, Occupational Safety and Health department of the Ministry, Lauretta Adogu (Mrs), and the Chief Inspector of Diving, Julius Ugwala.
Adogu stated that the operational overseeing exercise was aimed at ensuring full compliance with Nigeria’s Factories (Diving at Work) Regulations, 2018.
She disclosed that the diving operations being carried out by the contractor, Scorpion Oil Services, posed huge threats to the divers, as an on-the-spot assessment also revealed that the company was using inappropriate equipment and unqualified personnel.
Adogu said that Scorpion Oil Services also disregarded the Local Content law, with the operations wholly dominated by foreigners.
Adogu said: “The operators did not comply with the Factories (Diving at Work) Regulations, 2018. The Regulations stipulate that before any diving operation commences within the Nigerian territorial waters, there must be authorization approval issued by the Director of Factories of the Federation.
“Additionally, the Local Content law says Nigerians should be considered first for such operations, but the operators did not meet that requirement, as the place was filled with expatriates.
“Diving operations must get authorization approval before commencement, and this company has not requested any approval and does not have one.
“The company is being closed for non-compliance to these, and work here has been prohibited.”
Conclusion
Time and again, Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd. which are also into handling compliance regulations of entrepreneurs and onboard staffing in foreign countries, has a strong network of local partnership under a regional strategy. Its expert staff both at the local, regional and corporate levels in India and outside India, ensure that governance and compliances are met fully and in all respects.
The three greatest regulations that Karma Global focuses upon without a single letdown in foreign countries are :
(a) Terms of employment contract
(b) Minimum Wages
(c) Factories Act
Around the world, workers are given different rights. These range from the right to organize protests and participate in trade unions, to working in safe conditions and overtime pay.
There are 5 countries that have the best employment laws from the perspective of the employee with top global rankings in terms of rights of workers, based on their labor traditions and violation of labor rights.
- Austria
Even though Austria does not have any minimum wage law, some sectors such as domestic and education, provide a minimum wage to their workers. When it comes to the number of paid holidays, Austrian workers are lucky- they get an overall of 43 days off from work, and that’s not even counting parental leave! Moreover, the country is very inclusive of disabled workers, where their employment figures can count as one disabled worker out of every 25 employees. - Belgium
Belgium is another country that helps protect its workers. There is no set minimum wage, so different sectors decide what the minimum wage should be per worker. However, as compared to other European countries, Belgium has the highest wages. Belgium can, however, do a better job with its parental leave statutes. Compared to other countries in the region who have been known to offer leave days numbering in the hundreds, Belgium only allows three months of maternity leave and ten days of paternity leave. - Denmark
Even though there is no cross-sector minimum wage, the wages and salaries of workers are decided via collective agreements. The law in Denmark does not allow any kind of discrimination in terms of hiring specific workers or terminating contracts because workers are a part of trade unions. In Denmark, each worker is allowed 25 days of paid holiday leave per year. - Finland
A country known for its employee-friendly employment laws, Finland is famous for the number of parental leave days offered to workers. Employees are entitled to 105 weekdays of paid maternity leave, and fathers are permitted 54 days of paid paternity leave. According to the new reform to parental leave law, parents will be able to enjoy 164 days of paid parental leave, effective 2021. Parents will have the right to transfer 69 days from their own quota to the other parent. Finland also allows freedom for workers to create and join trade unions and promotes a healthy environment at work. Even though there is no minimum wage system in Finland, workers are encouraged to come up with fair collective agreements with each of their sectors. - Germany
In Germany, workers’ rights are a necessity. That is why Germany is a country with some of the best employment laws in the world. Here, workers are allowed a minimum of 20 days off from work each year.
Germany is also among the top five countries for minimum wage, coming out at EUR 9.35 per hour. Mothers are entitled to 13 weeks of paid maternity leave, including six weeks off that they can take before delivery. Fathers are also allowed to share a three-year leave with their partners. This means that together, parents can figure out a balance in order to be with their child until
Karma Global always advises its clients to be on the good side of the law and to abide by the same. In this respect, it offers a plethora of excellent services in terms of documentation compliance and validity of licenses for running the business.
Proprietory blog of Karma Global Tech Management Firm
This blog has been compiled by the internal staff of Karma Global with the knowledge and expertise that they possess, for its monthly newsletter Issue 03 of September 2022 in case of specific or general information or compliance updates for that matter, kindly reach out to the
Marketing Team – kush@karmamgmt.com / yashika@karmamgmt.com