At least 1,138 workers killed in eight months in Turkey: Report

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

At least 1,138 workers have died in the first eight months of 2015, according to a monthly report recently released by a non-governmental organization dealing with worker health and safety issues, with at least 158 worker deaths in August alone.

The number of worker deaths in the first eight months of 2015 totaled at least 1,138, says the Worker Health and Work Safety Assembly (İSİGM) report, compiled according to data in print and online media, as well as labor unions and organizations. 

İSİGM is an NGO composed of workers, worker relatives, doctors, engineers, academics, journalists, lawyers that deals with labor issues.

The report noted that the sectors where the most worker deaths were seen in the first eight months of 2015 were agriculture, logistics and construction. 

The number of worker deaths in August has increased yearly by more than 100 percent over the past three years, with the number of worker deaths 71 in August 2012, less than half of this year’s 158.

The report says 39 of the 158 workers who died in August were in the agriculture sector, while 37 were in construction and 20 were in logistics. 

The main causes of most worker deaths in the first eight months of the year are transportation problems, collapses at worksites and electric shocks, said the report, adding that the number of worker deaths due to electric shocks at worksites saw a substantial increase in August.

In August alone, 54 workers died in traffic accidents, 25 died in collapses at workplaces, and 24 died in falls. 

Ten of the workers who died in August were child workers and two were under the age of 14, according to the report, which cited an 8-year-old boy hit by a car while returning from feeding sheep and a 13-year-old boy killed in a lightning strike while feeding sheep.

Most of the worker deaths in August occurred in the Aegean province of İzmir, Istanbul province, the Mediterranean province of Antalya, the Central Anatolian provinces of Konya and Ankara, and the northwestern province of Bursa.

Some 13 of the worker deaths in August occurred in İzmir, 10 occurred in Antalya, Istanbul and Konya, eight occurred in Ankara and seven occurred in Bursa.