Work-related death toll was 145 in May

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The Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) released the May edition of its monthly reports on work-related deaths.

Accordingly, at least 145 workers were killed on the job in May of this year. The number of work-related deaths in the first five months of 2023 has been 730. 

The number of workers who passed away in work-related deaths was 120 in January, 213 in February, 130 in March, 122 in April, and 145 in May.

According to the report, construction was the sector with the highest number of casualties in the first five months of the year, a sector where 118 workers were killed on the job. The agriculture and forest sector came next with 94 workers killed on the job (27 workers and 67 farmers), and the transportation sector (82 deaths), and the hospitality sector (80 deaths) followed. 

On the other hand, the Health and Safety Labor Watch could not identify the sectors in which 27 workers who were killed on the job worked. 

Traffic accidents and accidents of employee service buses came first among the reasons of the work-related deaths, constituting the cause of death of 161 workers in the first five months of 2023. The organization also identified 110 workers who died in the February 6 earthquakes. 

While 109 workers died due to crushes and collapses, 93 fell from a high point, 86 died due to heart attack or apoplexy. Explosions and fires were the cause of death of 28 workers, poisoning and drowning for 26, violence for 24, and electric shock for 21. Seventeen workers committed suicide. 

Eleven were children

The age groups of the workers who were killed on the job in the first five months were as follows: 

• 4 child workers aged 14 or below,
• 7 child/young workers aged 15-17,
• 153 workers aged 18-29,
• 314 workers aged 30-49,
• 156 workers aged 50-64,
• 36 workers aged 65 and over,
• 60 workers whose ages could not be learned (HA/PE)