The families of four workers who died in a 2024 explosion at the Oba Makarna pasta factory in Sakarya province have withdrawn their complaints against the factory owners, despite an official investigation indicating gross negligence in the implementation of basic safety measures, the Halk TV news website reported.
The families withdrew their complaints after receiving a settlement from the factory’s owners, Mehmet Musa Özgüçlü and Alpaslan Özgüçlü. However, forensic experts identified them as primarily responsible for the explosion due to lax safety measures, poor equipment maintenance and failure to provide proper safety training to workers.
The explosion occurred on the ground floor in the mill section of the factory. It started with a spark from a short circuit in the electrical control room that ignited flour dust, leading to an explosion.
Team leader Önder Kalabaş said he had been warned upon starting the job to keep the space clean and free from dust, but he had not received any training on proper maintenance. Each floor had a janitor who cleaned it daily. On the day of the Sunday explosion only the janitor for the sixth floor was working, leaving after cleaning that one floor.
Forensic investigations revealed that the electric panels were cleaned only every six months, open panel doors had allowed dust accumulation and some rooms meant to be locked were left open. Moreover, they found uninsulated and hanging electric cables.
The owners of the factory shifted the blame to the workers and the general manager. However, the manager had only been appointed 40 days prior to the incident and was not given any training in occupational safety.
The incident at Oba Makarna is one of many tragic and fatal workplace accidents in Turkey. In 2020 an explosion at a fireworks factory in the same province claimed the lives of seven workers. At the most recent court hearing in the ongoing trial the owner said he should not receive a lengthy sentence, pointing to a trend of leniency afforded to defendants in workplace accident cases.
Mining accidents are particularly common and result in high death tolls.
Since 2002 more than 2,000 miners have died in accidents across the country. The worst mining disaster in the nation’s history was in 2014 when a fire inside a coal mine in the Soma district of Manisa province led to the death of 301 miners.
According to Ayhan Yüksel, chairman of the Chamber of Mining Engineers, companies did not take necessary precautions to prevent accidents because the government does not enforce regulations. Furthermore, such companies were not adequately inspected and were not penalized if they were culpable in an accident.
Lax work safety standards have been a significant cause of concern for decades in Turkey, where workplace accidents are a nearly daily occurrence.
The Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) reported nearly 2,000 work-related deaths in 2024.
According to İSİG more than 30,000 occupational accidents have been reported since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002.
A yearly report produced by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on labor rights revealed that Turkey is one of the 10 worst countries in the world for workers in industrial sectors.
