55 Workers Killed on the Job in March

According to a report released by Worker Health and Work Security Assembly, at least 55 workers were killed from work-related injuries in March.

The leading sectors on worker deaths were construction (15), steel industry (6), mining (6) and chemistry (5).

In March, most worker casualties happened in Istanbul (10), Mugla (5), Izmir (4),Sakarya (4) provinces.

According to a recent report released by Turkey's main statistics institute, there are currently 893,000 child workers out of 15,247,000 children between 6 and 17 years old - a toll that constituted 20.6 percent of entire population in Turkey.

13 year old killed by press machine

Ahmet Yıldız (13) was working as tea boy at Koç Plastik firm in Adana's Yüreğir district and earning 100 liras (roughly 40 euros) per week. On March 14, only two months since he started working, he was transferred to a hospital by his boss Ali Koç who claimed that an unknown vehicle hit him. Though later, doctors found out that Ahmet Yıldız was killed by a press machine at work.

"Teenager girls as agriculture's invisible workforce"

The report listed poverty, immigration, inaccess to education, paid education and cheap labor that capitalism craved as leading factors behind the insecurity of child labor.

"One aspect of child labor is seasonal agriculture and construction jobs. especially teenager girls is almost synonym with agriculture's invisible workforce with fruit picking. They count among the most abused groups, because their domestic labor goes uncompensated. We observe teenager boys at construction sector. They do not only handle light work, they take heavy responsibilities at construction sites," the report said.

"Profession schools function as cheap labor factories"

"Apprentice / intern children work long hours as cheap labor in factories under Education Ministry's programs. In some cases, profession schools became industry's cheap labor hubs. They become victims of injuries and poisoning at Organized industry zones. They are also subjected to illness and permanent damages due to hard labor and inconvenient work conditions. 4+4+4 education system legitimizes child labor at the age of 9.5. Yearly internship periods were extended to 150 from 120. 'Regulation on Child and Adolescent Working Hours' leads the way to 16 old children to work at construction sites in various sectors including the production of various bricks, paraffin, plastic andcellulose," the report cited.

Names of deceased workers

İsmail Şenkaya, Ahmet Kutlucan, Mustafa Deveci, Ayhan Aydoğdu, Muhammet Aydoğan, Taner Kaleli, Fahri Çalışkan, Kader Özcan, Mustafa Çiçek, Hakan Akbaş, Mehmet Akın, Ahmet Yıldız, Bünyamin Duran, Mahmut İstek, Mehmet Yıldırım, İsmail Özdemir, Behlül Baylay, Sedat Kaçar, Mustafa Gündüz, Sadettin Çam, Nurettin Kızılbay, Mustafa Kahraman, Kerim Hüseyinoğlu, Nebi Soydoğan, Ahmet Güney, Zeynep Aybüke Baraş, Ahmet T., Zeki Aydın, Sami Toplar, Kemal Aydın, Metin Kartal, Şaban Tekin, Mustafa Demirtaş, Ramazan Aydın, Ahmet Sefer Bakar, İlyas Yılmaz, Cemal Akıncı, Müslüm Kıcı, Seçkin Güneş, S.B., Cengiz Tayoğlu, Sema Müstecaplıoğlu, Şentürk Çavuş, Nurettin Durgun, Ersin Eker, Bayram Demir, Ercan Uysal, Musa Erkan, Bahtiyar Zorlu, Şükrü Uymaz, Hasan Yolcu, Ali Fuat Karaöz, Nilüfer Korku, Ömer Ark, İskender Türe.

According to statistics released by Turkey's labor ministry, at least 12,418 workers were killed on the job between 2001 and 2011.

At least 878 workers were killed from work-related injuries in 2012, Worker Health and Work Security Assembly cited. (NV/BM)