The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has charged Heads of Ministries Departments and Agencies to prioritise healthy working environment for their staff to enhance service delivery.
Yemi- Esan made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the opening of a three-day training on ‘Occupational Safety And Health (OSH) Desk Officers in MDAs’,
The HOCSF was represented by Mr Mahmud Kambari, Permanent Secretary Service Welfare Office, Office of the HOCSF.
The training, which attracted over 170 civil servants selected from different MDAs has, ‘Fostering a Save Conducive and Healthy Work Environment for Civil Servants’, as its theme.
The initiative is aimed at showing government’s concern for the safety and health of civil servants generally for better and greater productivity of the service.
Yemi-Esan explained that a healthy workforce was a key element which could translate to increase productivity in any organisation, hence the need for such officers in public sector.
The HOS recalled the National Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) policy which was approved by the Federal Executive Council, mandated the office of the HOCSF to ensure the provision of safe, conducive work environment.
The initiative was also to ensure healthy work environment and promote international best practices in OSH for workers in all government MDAs.
“In line with this mandate, the office of the HOCSF on July 6, 2022 issued a circular for the establishment of OSH Desk in MDAs, instructing them to establish or resuscitate an OSH Desk.
“The office is to be manned by staff who will be trained to discharge the responsibilities of coordinating the implementation of OSH activities in the MDAs, ” she explained.
Earlier, Mrs Comfort Adeosun, Director Operational Health and Safety in office of the HOCSF, said the training was aimed to equip the participants to function properly as desk officers to properly drive the OSH.
According to Adeosun, OSH is an organizational policy developed by the federal government to promote healthy living amongst civil servants in the course of discharging their duties.
Also, Dr Oluwakemi Lawanson, Managing Director MODZ.UK Solution Limited, a Guest Lecturer, who spoke on a topic ‘Health And Safety at the Office’, decried the high rate of death being recorded among civil servants owing to lack of precautionary ways.
Lawanson urged the desk officers on training to take deliberate efforts to prevent workplace accident and illness so as to promote a healthy wellbeing among civil servants.
According to her, it is expected that at the end of the three-day training, the participants are expected to go home with an understanding of what safety and health is at the work place because if they don’t understand, it will be difficult to achieve the needed aims of the initiative.
