Workers’ Health and Works Safety Assembly (WHSA) issued a comprehensive report, which indicates that at least 1970 workers were murdered in 2016 in Turkey.
Founded by pro-labour workers, public employees, doctors, engineers, workers’ families, academics, lawyers and journalists, WHSA calls itself an assembly independent from the state and capital with the aim of coordinating struggle for safety and healthy workplaces. WHSA’s report suggests that the term of “work accident” is a capitalist approach which considers occupational murders as destined or natural developments and that the terms such as “work-related murder” or in short “work murder” should be used instead.
The report shows that the workforce consists of 30 million workers in Turkey, the rate of men is 71,9% while of women is 31,8%. The distribution of sectors: 20,14% in agriculture, 20% in industry, 7,6% in construction, and 52% in the service sector.
AT LEAST 1970 WORKERS MURDERED IN 2016
Under the light of updated data gathered from labour organisations, work-related murders in 2016 are as follows by month:
In January at least 119,
In February at least 144,
In March at least 160,
In April at least 172,
In May at least 127,
In June at least 210,
In July at least 176,
In August at least 206,
In September at least 150,
In October at least 169,
In November at least 196,
And in December at least 141 workers lost their lives...
At least 1970 workers were murdered in 2016!
Demonstrating that the rate of work-related murders has largely increased under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the report states: “In 2016, the distribution of work murders by types of employment is as follows: among 1970 labourers who lost their lives in 2016, 1682 of them are wage earners in private&public sectors, and 288 of them are independent workers working on his/her own behalf, 210 being farmers/small land owners and 78 being merchants.”
END STATE OF EMERGENCY IMMEDIATELY
There is an important point in the graph: Work related murders before the date of declaration of the state of emergency, on July 21 with blue colour, and after that to the end of the year with red. The real situation is obvious: Workers’ health and work safety conditions were already bad but became worse. After the declaration of the state of emergency work murders have increased by 9%.
DEMOGRAPHIC FIGURES ON OCCUPATIONAL MURDERS
The WHSA report shows that 110 female and 1860 male workers were murdered in 2016. Indicating to the situation of women workers, the report states: “Women mainly work in agriculture, health, education, office, food, textile, aviation, municipality, and domestic sectors. Another factor is that work-related murders of women are either kept secret or they are made invisible since they work in the informal economy.”
The report demonstrates that 56 of the murdered workers in 2016 were child/young workers under the age of 18. The workers’ murders largely took place in industrial cities: “262 workers died in İstanbul; 89 workers died in Kocaeli; 81 workers died in Bursa; 74 workers died in İzmir, 72 workers died in Ankara; 70 workers died in Antalya; 61 workers died in Konya, and 56 workers died in Manisa.”
According to the report, “442 workers died due to traffic and shuttle accidents; 355 workers died due to collapses and crushes; 323 workers died due to falls; 217 workers died due to heart attack or brain haemorrhage; 159 workers died due to armed attack-shooting; 91 workers died due to electric shocks; 90 workers died by suicide…”
The rate of work-related murders has largely increased under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
INCREASING SUICIDE RATES AMONG WORKERS
Underlining that the rate of suicide largely increased in Turkey under the rule of the AKP and that 90 workers committed suicide in 2016, the report puts forth:
“As a result of the neoliberal capitalist policies during the reign of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) with the growing precariatization of public teachers, an important number of teachers have not been appointed to their jobs by the government although they have already graduated from their colleges. The education has been a commodity by itself bought and sold including the teachers' labour force. On the other hand, these suicides happen not only among teachers. Among bank workers, security workers, farmers, construction workers..., a lot of suicides happened last year and do happen every year. However about what they call ‘conspicuous suicide attempts’ and what we call work-related murders, there is not one single theoretical study or written research in Turkey, let alone a practical struggle.”
CHILD LABOUR SHOULD BE BANNED
Showing that at least 56 child workers were murdered in 2016, the report says:
“There is a considerable number of child workers in metal, construction, accommodation, public works, trade, food, and textile sectors … children are either encouraged to go to the vocational high schools to supply cheap technical staff to the capital, or pushed out of education to join the unskilled labour force.”
The report also indicates to the EU’s hypocrisy: “the European Union is a collaborator of the state policies regarding child labour. EU officials praise the government’s efforts to improve the conditions of child labour. An aspect to be underlined regarding migrant child labour is that there was no finding on migrant child worker death in 2013; however, five Syrian immigrant children were killed in work-related murders in 2014, twelve Syrian children in 2015, and twenty-four immigrant children, including 6 Syrian and 1 Afghan, in 2016. This situation is a direct reflection of the above-mentioned Turkey-EU policies.”
‘RESIST, WORKER! IN ORDER TO SURVIVE’
The WHSA report concludes that they are calling workers for joining unions against work-related murders:
“Workers’ participation is the prerequisite for prevention of work-related murders and ensuring healthy and safe work. Workers can only achieve this by way of unionisation. All kinds of pressure on the freedom of unionisation should be eliminated! End to subcontracting and hired labour! We want secure employment! The bosses, bureaucrats, and politicians who are responsible for work-related murders should be prosecuted and punished! These demands are the most basic rights of workers’ health and work safety. Our task is to persist on creating movements across the country for implementation of our demands.”
