İSİG: 169 workers killed on the job in July

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At least 169 workers were killed on the job in July, according to the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG).

The number of occupational homicides in the first seven months reached 1,014, the İSİG's monthly reports showed.

Some 120 workers were killed in January, 109 were killed in February, 122 were killed in March, 129 were killed in April, 176 were killed in May, and 189 were killed in June.

Non-union workers

Among the workers who were killed this year, 867, or 86 percent, were paid workers (workers and civil servants) and 147 were working on their own behalf (shopkeepers and farmers).

Only 27, or 2.66 percent, of the killed workers were unionized, whereas 987 of them were not members of a union. The unionized workers were working in the sectors of metal, chemistry, mining, healthcare, municipality, communications, energy, transportation and security.

Child workers

Sixty-eight of the killed workers were women and 946 were men. Fourteen child workers younger than 18 and 25 child workers between the ages of 15-17 were killed.

While the İSİG was not able to confirm the ages of 58 workers, 148 workers were in the 18-27 age group, 483 were in the 28-50 age group, 217 were in the 51-64 age group and 69 were older than 65.

Refugee workers

Fifty-five of the killed workers were refugees. Twenty-four were from Syria, 12 were from Afghanistan, four were from Uzbekistan, three were from Iran, two were from Turkmenistan, and one worker was from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, Pakistan, Serbia, Ukraine and Greece each.

Sectors

The highest number of the deaths occurred in the sectors agriculture and forestry with 199, including 97 workers and 102 farmers.

Some 192 workers were in the construction sector, 124 were in the transportation sector, 65 were in the trade, office, education and cinema sector, and 62 were in the metal sector. The İSİG was not able to identify the sectors of 30 workers.

Causes of death

The most common cause of death was traffic or shuttle accidents with 220. Also, 189 workers were killed because of being crushed/collapse and 152 workers were killed because of falling from a height.

Cities

Workers were killed in 75 out of the 81 cities of Türkiye, as well as in 17 other countries. The highest number of deaths occurred in İstanbul (136), Antalya (38), İzmir (38), Muğla (37), Mersin (35), Denizli (32) and Kocaeli (31).

Five workers were killed in Iraq, three were killed in Northern Cyprus, two workers were killed in Israel and Russia each, and one worker each was killed in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Dominica, Kuwait, Libya, Macedonia, Malta, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. (HA/VK)