İSİG Report: Nearly Half of Worker Fatalities in April Caused by Covid-19

Photo: AA/Archive

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

At least 220 workers died in April, according to the monthly report of the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG).

The deaths of at least 103 workers, or 47 percent of all deaths, were caused by Covid-19, the report found. In its last two reports, the İSİG considered Covid-19 as an "occupational infectious disease" and Covid-19 deaths as "occupational homicides."

"Covid-19 is increasingly becoming a working-class disease," the İSİG said, noting that coronavirus deaths might be even higher than it was able to find.

In the first four months of 2020, at least 580 workers were killed in occupational homicides, according to the İSİG reports.

Here are some highlights from the report, which was compiled from news reports and information from unions, workers and their families, occupational safety specialists and workplace doctors:

• 176 of the killed were salary workers (workers and civil servants) and 54 would work on their own behalf (agriculturists and artisans).
• 14 were women and 206 were men. Four of them were children and eight were migrants/refugees.
• Women workers were killed in occupational homicides that occurred in agriculture, textile, office, energy, health and accommodation sectors.
• Only 16 of the killed workers were unionized.
• Sectors with the most fatalities were agriculture, trade/office, healthcare, construction, transportation, municipality/general work, mining, textile, metal, accommodation, security, woodwork/paper.
• The most common death causes were Covid-19, traffic/shuttle accidents, crush/collapse, falling from a height, heart attack, violence and electric shock.
• Occupational homicides occurred in 53 cities of Turkey and three other countries.
• Provinces with the most occupational homicides were İstanbul, Kocaeli, İzmir, Adana, Aydın, Bursa and Konya. (TP/VK)