Curbing the Risks Faced by Lone Workers

  By Akanimo Asuquo Sunday                     

Last month, a delivery agent with a popular e-commerce portal was gruesomely murdered by dare-devil young people who masqueraded as genuine online shoppers availing themselves of the convenience of having items delivered to their doorstep with a pay-on-delivery perk. He was bludgeoned to coma and eventually suffocated with a sack before being lowered into a soak-away tank in Port Harcourt.  Taking a cue from this novel method of criminality, three young men beguiled another lone worker, an U

An injured lone worker

ber driver to a location under the pretense of engaging his service and snuffed life out of the unsuspecting young man before parting with his vehicle. 

Nigerians are still reeling in shock from the graphic video of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency’s Zonal Head who was reported to have had his eyes gouged out before being stoned to death while lodged in a muddy drainage in Apapa, Lagos, in one of the most gory, barbaric and cold-blooded murder in recent time, while in pursuit of his official duties. Cases abound where lone workers of utility companies, security agencies and sundry service providers are attacked by irate members of the public.


The rising spate of violent attacks on lone workers has necessitated the need for a thorough review of the mode of operations of this set of workers and an adoption of a safe system of work.  Lone workers are those who work by themselves without close or direct supervision. Lone working is bifurcated into two broad categories- people working alone in fixed establishments and mobile workers working away from their fixed base. The e-commerce delivery man, the Uber driver, the LASTMA official, other service workers such as postal delivery men, reporters, installation and maintenance staff, agricultural and forestry workers, and rent collectors fall into the category of mobile workers working away from their fixed base. 

  

In health and safety management of hazards faced by lone workers, it is necessary to identify the hazards of the job, assess the risks involved, and put measures in place to avoid or control the risks. When evaluating the risks related to lone working, it is important to consider whether the risks of the job can be properly controlled by one person.

 Other considerations in the risk assessment include: does the particular workplace present a special risk to someone working alone? Is there safe egress and exit from the workplace?  Can all the equipment and valuables be safely handled by one person?  Is violence from others a risk? Is the worker medically fit and suitable for working alone?  Are special trainings and supervision in lone working procedures required? Does the worker have access to first aid? Does he have access to personal protective gadgets? Is he sufficiently equipped with communication gadgets, tracking devices, electronic ID badges that can alert the employer to the employee’s location? Are there gender-related risks? What’s the duration that the lone worker will spend working alone? These posers are pivotal in designing a safe system of work for the lone worker. 

Control and monitoring measures for this risk include supervisors periodically visiting and observing people working alone, avoiding lone working in certain high-risk areas, keeping records of past incidents and vetting customers, pre-visit intelligence telephone calls, training for staff on lone-working procedures, break-away techniques, de-escalation skills and self-defence, regular contact using a telephone or radio, automatic warning device which operate if specific signals are not received from the lone worker due to an absence of activity, reviewing reports on accidents and incidents from the local area, avoiding visits after dark, parking in secure areas and where possible, not carrying cash or valuables.

 An organisation with a positive safety culture should have a clear audit trail to ensure colleagues know the whereabouts of an employee in the event of non-return to the office or reporting back to head office. Technology now exists that enables dedicated systems to be introduced using mobile phones in the form of identity badges that carry a signal and use satellite tracking software to pinpoint a person’s location to within a couple of metres.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention C155 and Recommendation R164 make the duty of the employer clear. Employers owe a duty of care to their employees to provide a safe place of work, safe plants and equipment, safe systems of work, training, supervision and competency of staff.

It is the responsibility of the employer to develop safe systems of work with the involvement of both competent persons and employees who will be carrying out the work. These safe systems must be documented.  Safe systems of work are usually developed using the process of task analysis, which involves breaking work down into a series of steps so that hazards can be identified and risk controlled at each step using technical, procedural and behavioural controls.

Article 19 of the ILO C155 also provides that workers, in the course of performing their work, must co-operate with their employer in meeting the employer’s responsibilities. It further states that workers must promptly report to their supervisor any situation which they have reasonable justification to believe presents an imminent and serious danger to their life or health. Until the employer has taken remedial action, if necessary, the employer cannot require workers to return to a work situation where there is continuing imminent or serious danger to life or health.

Until health and safety issues are placed on the right pedestal by employers and regulatory/enforcement agencies, we will continue to witness needless loss of lives of innocent employees in pursuit of their official assignment. In many organisations, managements’ commitment to employees’ health and safety issues are relegated to the background.  Nigeria is a signatory to the ILO Conventions and must strive to live up to her billing by enforcing best labour practices.