At least 1,736 people died in work-related accidents in Turkey in 2019, according to a report from Turkey’s Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG).
The report also showed that eight workers lost their lives due to occupation-related disease.
A total of 1,713 of the victims, or 98.6 percent, were not members of a labor union, while 23 of them, 1.3 percent, had union affiliation, according to the report.
İSİG’s report was drafted based on relevant news reports in local and national media outlets and information gathered from coworkers and families of victims as well as work safety experts, workplace doctors and labor unions.
İstanbul was the city where the highest number of work-related deaths, 181, took place, followed by İzmir with 74, Antalya with 72, Kocaeli with 71, Bursa with 66 and Ankara with 56 deaths.
The most common cause of work-related deaths was traffic accidents, at 22 percent, followed by being buried in rubble or crushed to death at 16 percent and falls at 15 percent.
The report showed that 1,621 of the victims were male, 115 were female, 67 were minors and 112 were refugees.
Turkey has been suffering from low work safety standards for decades. Workplace accidents are nearly a daily occurrence in the country. In the worst work-related accident in Turkey’s history, 301 miners died in an explosion in Manisa’s Soma district in May 2014.