112 Workers Lose Their Lives in January

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The Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG Assembly) has released its months report on occupational homicides in Turkey.

According to the figures shared in the report, 112 workers lost their lives in occupational homicides in January 2020. While 94 of the deceased workers were wage earners (workers and civil servants), 18 workers were working on their own behalf (farmers and shop owners).

Other findings from the report are as follows:

* 12 of the deceased workers were women and 100 were men. The occupational homicides of women occured in sectors of agriculture, textile, trade, bureau, healthcare, accomodation, general affairs.

* Three child workers lost their lives in occupational homicides in January. One of the children was under the age of 14. Occupational homicides of children occured in the sectors of agriculture and food.

* 28 workers who lost their lives in occupational homicides last month were 51 years or older. They were working as farmers and shop owners or working in the sectors of fishing, food, bureau, construction, transportation, accomodation, municipal and general affairs.

* Seven migrant/refugee workers lost their lives in January. While three of them were from Syria, two of them were from Afghanistan, one of them from Georgia and one from Turkmenistan.

* Only two workers were members of a union. However, it is important to note that there might be other unionized workers among the deceased, but as their union membership was only on paper and several unions did not claim their deceased members, no specific information can be provided about the issue, especially when it comes to civil servants/public unions.

12 workers took their own lives

* The sectors with the highest number of occupational homicides were agriculture, construction, transportation, trade/bureau, municipal/general affairs, chemistry, food, metal, mining, textile and accomodation.

* The most frequent causes of death were falling from a higher place, being crushed/trapped, traffic/service bus accident, heart attack, suicide, violence, being poisoned/suffocated and explosion/burning.

* In January, 12 workers took their lives in their workplaces or for reasons related to their work. Several factors such as economic crisis, mobbing and harassment pave the way for the conditions that lead to suicides.

* One of the workers who committed suicide last month was Recep Kılıçarslan, who was working at İstanbul Üsküdar Municipality. Dismissed from his job by the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Üsküdar Municipality after the last local elections on March 31, 2019, Kılıçarslan could not find a job and was having financial difficulties. Saying "I cannot stand it anymore" to his family and friends, Kılıçarslan committed suicide.

The provinces where occupational homicides took place in January were as follows: 22 homicides in İstanbul, seven in İzmir and Muğla, five in Antalya, four in Konya, three in Adana, Amasya, Aydın, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Mersin and Samsun, two in Ankara, Burdur, Bursa, Çorum, Denizli, Malatya, Rize, Sakarya, Zonguldak and Russia and one in Adıyaman, Ağrı, Batman, Bolu, Çanakkale, Çorum, Erzurum, Gümüşhane, Hakkari, Hatay, Isparta, Karaman, Kastamonu, Manisa, Mardin, Osmaniye, Sivas, Şanlıurfa, Tekirdağ, Tokat, Van, Bulgaria and Algeria.

(RT/SD)