TÜRKİYE ORTA ASYA HABER KKUORDİNATÖRÜ

IFJ - INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF JOURNALIST Turkey is one of the world's most dangerous workplaces and one of the most hostile countries to unions. Of all the workplace accidents he witnessed and recorded in his homeland, Çakır cannot forget the death of young Ahmet Yıldız. He still looks back with sorrow at the photos he keeps on his mobile phone. Ahmet was just 13 years old when he was crushed to death by a press machine in a factory in Adana, where he worked for approximately 50 euros a week to pay for his school expenses. Despite the gravity of the situation, his employer tried to cover up the incident by claiming it was a traffic accident when he took him to the hospital. Despite the severity and his lies, factory owner Ali Koç served only three months of his initial five-year prison sentence for manslaughter. The court commuted this sentence to a fine of 30,040 Turkish Lira (the fine at the time - 2013), to be paid in 24 monthly installments. Çakir, coordinator and volunteer for the Occupational Health and Safety Assembly (ISIG), a watchdog organization, told Equal Times at a meeting in Istanbul that Ahmet's family couldn't speak to the media because the businessman offered them money in exchange for their silence. For Çakir and his union, these are not simple workplace accidents and should be classified as "occupational homicides" because, he insists, "if proper safety measures had been taken, these deaths would never have occurred. The employer is to blame." Leader in Fatal Workplace Accidents Turkey has one of the highest rates of work-related deaths in Europe and the world. According to the latest ISIG data, at least 1,371 workers lost their lives in workplace accidents in the first nine months of 2024. This number reached 1,932 in 2023. By comparison, according to the latest Eurostat data, the total annual number of fatal workplace accidents across the EU was 3,347. The construction, agriculture, and service sectors top the list with the highest number of deaths. Construction remains the deadliest sector; falls from heights are among the most common accidents, while the agricultural sector remains one of the most vulnerable, with the most vulnerable workers. Employers in Türkiye often cut costs at the expense of their workers' safety. A The ISIG coordinator also noted that Western companies operating in Türkiye p Fatal accidents in key sectors like construction and agriculture currently account for nearly 50 percent of all workplace accidents. According to ISIG, this increase is partly due to the rise in temporary and low-wage jobs that do not provide the necessary safety measures. Furthermore, illegal workers, women, and children are dying in unlicensed workplaces, and there is no one responsible, and the government is blind, unheard, and not a single minister has resigned.