At Least 124 Workers Lose Their Lives in June

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According to the June 2019 report of the Laborers' Health and Occupational Safety (İSİG) Assembly, at least 124 workers lost their lives in occupational homicides last month. In the first six months of this year, 840 workers in total lost their lives in occupational homicides.

Some highlights from the report are as follows:

107 men, 17 women, 6 children, 12 refugees

* 90 of 124 workers who lost their lives in June 2019 were wage earners (workers and civil servants) while the remaining 34 workers were working on their own behalf (farmers and shop owners).

* While 17 of the deceased were women, 107 of them were men. The occupational homicides of women occured in agriculture and trade sectors.

* Six children, two of whom were under the age of 14, lost their lives in occupational homicides in June. The deceased children were working in the agriculture and textile sectors.

* 13 refugee/migrant workers lost their lives in June 2019. While six of the deceased migrants/refugees were from Syria, five of them were from Afghanistan, one from Iran and one from Uzbekistan.

99 percent of deceased workers not unionized

* The highest number of deaths by occupational homicides occured in the sectors of agriculture, construction, municipal/general affairs, transportation, energy, chemistry, textile, trade/office, mining and metal.

* The most frequent reasons of death were traffic/service accidents, being poisoned/suffocated, being crushed/trapped under debris, electric shock, explosion/burning, heart attack and falling from a high place.

* The highest number of occupational homicides occurred in İstanbul, Kocaeli, Trabzon, Antalya, Ağrı, Bursa, Aydın, İzmir, Tekirdağ, Zonguldak.

* While one of the deceased workers was unionized (0.8 percent), 123 workers (99.2 percent) were not unionized.

840 deaths in six months

The report has shown that 840 workers in total lost their lives in occupational homicides in the first six months of 2019:

* 61 women, 779 men and 33 child workers, 11 of whom were under the age of 14, lost their lives in occupational homicides in the first half of 2019. 63 of the deceased were migrants/refugees.

* While 205 of these occupational homicides occured in the agriculture sector, 165 of them occurred in construction, 107 in transportation, 54 in municipal/general affairs, 47 in trade/office, 32 in metal, 31 in mining, 25 in energy, 25 in ship/shipyard and 24 in textile.

* The most frequent reasons of death were traffic/service accidents, being crushed/trapped under debris, falling from a high place, heart attack, being poisoned/suffocated and electric shock.

* The highest number of occupational homicides occurred in the provinces of İstanbul (88), Antalya (39), İzmir (38), Kocaeli (33), Ankara (28) and Aydın (28). While 14 of the deceased workers were unionized (1.66 percent), 826 of the were not the members of a labor union. (DB/SD)