As an HR pro, have you ever had to discipline employees for not wearing proper safety equipment? In Nigeria, police are cracking down on motorcycle taxi drivers who are wearing dried fruit shells, paint pots or pieces of rubber on their heads instead of helmets that are required as of Jan. 1.
The drivers complain the helmets are too expensive and that their riders don’t want to wear them because they think they’ll catch a disease or be put under a spell.
Construction workers are renting their safety helmets to the drivers for about $3.60 a day.
So far, 28 drivers have been arrested in the city of Kano, and newspapers report arrests in other cities, too.
A Federal Road Safety Commission commander says the drivers have nothing to complain about. They had several months notice before the new law went into effect, and the safety helmets were available for under $6.
