A Nigerian occupational safety and public health expert, Treasure Nkemdilim James, has urged Nigerian employers to treat stress, harassment, violence and economic pressure in the
workplace as a “preventable public health burden,” warning that psychosocial hazards are quietly driving injuries, burnout, harmful coping behaviours and avoidable family hardship.
James, who recently participated as a country expert supporting the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva on a global policy review of psychosocial hazards and risks, shared his experience with newsmen on this, said the world of work is undergoing a shift in what is now recognized as serious risk, a as such it is vital for system in the country to have such knowledge.
According to her, the urgent occupational challenge today is not only physical hazards but also psychosocial hazards like poor role clarity, excessive job demands, bullying, weak social support, and the growing effort to address them through legislation, regulation, and soft law, such as codes of practice, organisational policies, and guidance.
She said many organizations still invest heavily in visible safety controls like helmets, fire extinguishers, and warning signs while ignoring the less visible pressures that shape how people actually behave at work.
“When people are exhausted, confused about expectations, afraid of losing their jobs, or dealing with intimidation, errors rise, conflict increases, and the chances of an incident go up,” she said, arguing that psychosocial risks should be managed with the same seriousness as electrical hazards or hot work.
James pointed to the SOLVE approach, a workplace health promotion and prevention model that treats psychosocial factors as manageable risks through leadership action, worker participation and policy integration.
The framework addresses management practices,
addictive behaviours, HIV and AIDS, healthy rest and sleep, stress, violence, nutrition and physical activity, and economic stress, and pushes organizations to translate these issues into a structured workplace programme and action plan rather than one-off “sensitization” talks.
According to her, the public health value of SOLVE is that it focuses on prevention at scale: identifying workplace stressors early, reducing exposure, and strengthening protective factors before problems escalate into injuries, depression, absenteeism or family crises.
She noted that in many Nigerian workplaces, silence and stigma are part of the hazard as staff are afraid to report bullying, harassment, threats, or exhaustion because they fear retaliation, job loss, or being labelled ‘weak’.
The result, she said, is a hidden burden that shows up later as accidents, hypertension, mental distress, substance dependence, and poor performance.
James, an innovative entrepreneur and occupational health and safety management systems lead auditor, said she has seen how prevention improves when employers stop treating worker wellbeing as “personal issues” and start treating it as an operational risk.
She said a psychosocial-hazards intervention that makes sense for Nigeria must go beyond general messages about “mental health awareness” and focus on specific workplace drivers known to cause harm, such as unclear roles, unrealistic targets, excessive workload, poor supervision, and tolerance for intimidation.
“A lot of what Nigerians call ‘normal work pressure’ is actually a risk factor. If you want fewer incidents, you must manage the upstream conditions that create fatigue, fear and conflict.”
In her view, the most practical entry point is management behaviour and work design, including reasonable workloads, predictable shifts, fair supervision, and consequences for bullying and harassment, because these are the upstream factors that fuel stress and violence at work.
She added that employers should pay special attention to workers most exposed to psychosocial harm, including junior staff, contract workers and those in customer-facing roles, where pressure, verbal abuse and unrealistic targets are common.
She also argued that psychosocial hazards should be treated as a national OSH priority, reflecting international momentum to address them through enforceable rules and credible guidance.
“This is where law and soft law matter. Policies against bullying and harassment must be real, reporting must be protected, and supervisors must be trained and held accountable. Soft law in terms of codes of conduct, management standards, and sector guidance often moves faster than legislation, but both are needed.”
James said SOLVE’s strength is its insistenlce on policy integration, meaning organisations must embed psychosocial risk controls into existing systems. She emphasised that this is not
about replacing human care with motivational speeches, but about creating conditions where people can work safely and report issues without fear.
“You don’t reduce violence by telling workers to be resilient. You reduce it by setting standards, training supervisors, protecting reporting, and acting consistently,” she also pointed out.
On fatigue and sleep, she warned that long commutes, night shifts, poor rostering, and economic pressure can combine into a dangerous mix, especially in sectors such as security services, healthcare, logistics, and fieldwork in the telecoms sector.
She said organisations
should treat sleep and rest as safety controls, not perks, noting that SOLVE explicitly places healthy rest and sleep alongside other workplace risk areas, and links these themes to policy integration and action planning.
She then called for more honest workplace conversations about harmful coping behaviours,
including alcohol and drug misuse, describing them as both an individual health issue and an organisational safety risk that must be handled with prevention, support and clear boundaries, not shame.
SOLVE, she noted, also recognises workplace roles in addressing HIV and AIDS through stigma reduction, prevention education and supportive policies that protect dignity while enabling access to care.
James urged employers to treat economic stress as a workplace risk factor as well, arguing that salary delays, job insecurity and exploitative arrangements can drive unsafe shortcuts,
conflict and desperation. She said the solution is not only higher wages (though fair pay matters), but also transparent communication, realistic targets, grievance mechanisms, and basic welfare protections that reduce the pressure to take dangerous risks.
According to her, Nigeria’s private sector, public institutions, and professional bodies can all play roles in making psychosocial risk management mainstream: employers by implementing
structured programmes; regulators by encouraging clearer expectations; and professional associations by building capacity so safety and HR teams can assess psychosocial risks with the same seriousness as physical hazards.
“The real test is whether work becomes safer and healthier in daily life.The goal is not a beautiful policy. The goal is fewer breakdowns, fewer conflicts, fewer injuries, and healthier people going home to their families,” she added.