The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) says it will collaborate with the International Labour Organisation(ILO) on laws to regulate COVID-19 claims and compensations.
Mrs Nkiru Ogunnaike, NSITF General Manager, Claims and Compensation, while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the regulation would be to registered employers, employees and their dependents.
“We all know about the COVID-19, which we are still trying to come out from and which has actually posed a lot of issues across the world and not just Nigeria alone.
“This is in terms of processing claims and emanating claims from people who said they have COVID-19.
“We know that under the Employees Compensation Scheme, if you get injured in the cause of work, on your way to work, way back from work or in the working place, you will be covered under the scheme.
“Also, in terms of where you get injured, disabled, occupational diseases or if death occurred in the cause of work.
“Now with COVID-19, it is difficult to establish where a worker has contracted the pandemic. So, in processing such a claim, how will you ascertain whether it occurred in the cause of work or not,” she said.
Ogunnaike said that the NSITF was in touch with the ILO and also understudying other countries on ways to ascertain how it would be established that COVID-19 occurred in the cause of work.
She pointed out that another scenario was the new work life across the nation or even across the world which was, ”work from home”.
According to her, NSITF has received number of cases from people who said they got injured while working from home.
“This has been difficult because we are having many of such cases and we know that the world is going digital and work from home has come to stay.
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“So, how can you establish that this person got injured while he or she is working from home and not a domestic accident.
“We are talking to ILO, to see if the other countries are having such challenges, it is a new norm and it is here to stay and certainly we will come up with laws that will regulate this”, she said.
The general manager also further said that there were lots of claims that concerned road traffic accidents in the country.
“Most of our claims are road traffic accident or death of people who are travelling on their way to work; or on their way back from work. Though they are covered when they get injured or die as a result of that.
“We are collaborating the police and other para-military agencies to help keep the road safe, where people can travel to work and back.
“I think more collaboration with those agencies can help curb these heavy claims ,’’she added.
(NAN)
