At least 122 workers killed on the job in April

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The Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) released its April report of work-related deaths.

Accordingly, at least 122 workers died in work-related incidents in April. The number of workers who died in the first four months of 2023 was 585.

In January, 120 workers died while working, while in February, 213 workers and in March, 130 workers lost their lives. Almost 5 workers have been killed on the job every day since the beginning of the year. Forty-six of the deceased workers were women.

The İSİG found that only 30 out of the workers who died in the first 4 months of the year were unionized (5.12 percent).

The highest number of work-related deaths in the first four months of 2023 occurred in the construction-road sector (16 percent), accommodation (13 percent), transportation (11 percent), and agriculture-forestry (10 percent) industries.

This year, at least 92 people died in the construction industry, 76 of whom were motorcycle couriers in the accommodation industry, at least 64 people in the transportation industry, and at least 59 people working in agriculture and forestry industries, the majority of whom (45) were farmers.

In addition, 149 workers lost their lives in the food, mining, textile, wood, cement, metal, energy, and shipbuilding sectors.

Causes of deaths

The İSİG cited traffic-service accidents (22 percent), earthquakes (19 percent), crushing-collapse incidents (13 percent), falling from a height (13 percent), and heart attacks (11 percent) as the main causes of work-related accidents.

The report included 110 workers who died while working during earthquakes or who were in the region for education, training, or assignment purposes.

The council also noted that two people died from occupational diseases in April. It announced that 40-year-old sandblasting worker Gökhan Dinler died due to silicosis, while 51-year-old İbrahim Kadir Karaoğlanoğlu died due to elephantiasis (lymphedema) he contracted from a mosquito bite when he worked at a hotel in Antalya nine years ago.

According to the İSİG, 1 percent of the workers who died in work-related accidents were children, 21 percent were young, and 25 percent were in the retirement age group or were retired but had to work.

Also, at least 31 refugees lost their lives in work-related accidents in the first four months of the year. 10 of the deceased were Syrian, 6 were Turkmens, 5 were Afghan, 2 were Bulgarian, 2 were Egyptian, 1 was Filipino, 1 was Japanese, 1 was Iraqi, 1 was Colombian, 1 was Russian, and 1 was Sudanese. (HA/VK)