Fatal Occupational Accidents in Turkey from a City and Country Perpective

Abstract

Occupational accidents and death cases resulting from occupational accidents are among the most critical factors threatening work peace. Occupational accidents cause injury, disability and even death for many employees. In 2021, 1394 employees died due to occupational accidents in Turkey, while 3123 became permanently incapacitated, that is, disabled for life. In addition, tens of thousands of employees were injured in occupational accidents, resulting in temporary incapacitation and exposing them and their families to emotional distress. The fact that occupational accidents are preventable events to a large extent makes the incidents caused by occupational accidents, such as death, loss of limb, and severe injury due to occupational accidents, even more tragic. Especially multiple-fatality occupational accidents are accepted as an indicator of the importance countries place on human life. Human life is above any economic value. Turkey is the country with the worst performance in Europe in terms of fatal occupational accident incidence rates. For all these reasons, in this study, fatal occupational accidents in Turkey in 2012-2022 were analyzed with the Health and Safety Labour Watch-Turkey (HESA Labour Watch) data. In addition, Social Security Institution (SSI) data for 2012-2021 was compared with the HESA Labour Watch data, and it was examined whether fatal occupational accidents were officially recorded. Finally, using official SSI data, Turkey and EU-27 countries were compared regarding the number of death cases resulting from occupational accidents and fatal occupational accident incidence rates. The study revealed the following results; Some of the fatal occupational accidents cannot be recorded in Turkey, After the OSH law, the number of death cases as a result of occupational accidents increased, compared to the EU-27 countries, Turkey has the worst performance in terms of both the number of death cases as a result of occupational accidents and the fatal accidents incidence rate.