According to the data compiled by the Workers’ Health and Occupational Safety Assembly, at least 161 workers have lost their lives in workplace accidents in Turkey in the first month of the year. The Assembly’s statistics has showed that 155 male and 6 female workers have been killed in occupation related accidents. Seven of the victims were 7 refugee workers.
Death toll because of occupational accidents in January has been the highest figure reported in the last five years. At least 81 workers had lost their lives in January 2013, followed by 101 workers in January 2014, 128 workers in January 2015 and 119 workers in January 2016.
Because of the lack of sufficient work safety measures, occupational fatalities have continuously increased in Turkey. The number of the victims had reached a record level with 1970 victims in 2016. Turkey has been the worst country in Europe in terms of occupational death rates and third in the whole world. According to statistics, 56 of the victims who were killed in occupational accidents were children, 110 of them were women and 96 of them were immigrants.
1.682 people who lost their lives at workplaces last year were either laborers or civil servants and 288 were either farmers or tradesmen. Most of the occupational fatalities occurred in sectors such as construction (442), agriculture (389), and transportation (265). These sectors are known as the very sectors with the least union-based organizations and with the unsafe working conditions.
According to statistics, with 262 deaths İstanbul is the first among Turkish cities where the most workplace fatalities have been witnessed. İstanbul was followed by other big cities such as Kocaeli (89), Bursa (81), İzmir (72), Ankara (70) and Antalya (70) in terms of workplace fatalities.
