The Ministry of Labour and Employment has inaugurated a taskforce for the implementation of COVID-19 Protcols in the Ministry.
Performing the inauguration in his office, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Yerima Peter Tarfa, stated that the Ministerial Taskforce would ensure that people in the work place complied with the COVID-19 Protocol, aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus.
He said that as the Federal Government, through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, had articulated and communicated the protocols on the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the implementation required proper monitoring and comprehensive enforcement for effectiveness.
According to Tarfa, the information on the prevention of the spread of the virus needed to be passed down to different levels, and disseminated across the board, especially at the work place, stating that the Ministry’s Taskforce on the Implementation of COVID-19 Protocol was set up for that purpose.
He disclosed that the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) had directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies to make certain that members of staff worked in a healthy environment, especially as all civil servants had resumed work.
Tarfa therefore charged the Taskforce “to ensure that the work environment in the Ministry is safe.”
The Permanent Secretary tasked the Ministerial Taskforce with the “enforcement of the Protocols of COVID-19 in all departments and also provide the modalities for staff to live with the new normal that the virus has presented.”
In her opening remarks, Director, Human Resources Management who doubled as the Chair of the Committee, Mrs Toyin Alade stated that Government had put in place protocols to ensure safety at work in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She noted that strict adherence to those protocols would serve to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Alade enjoined the Committee to abide by the guidelines from the OHCSF in providing the right advice to staff and putting the necessary measures in place.