According to the Workers’ Health and Job Safety Council (İşçi Sağlı İş Güvenliği Meclisi - İSİG), at least 575 workers have died on the job since the beginning of this year, while over 21.000 people have lost their lives in accidents dubbed “workplace murders”.

According to the İSİG Council’s April report, at least 177 workers have lost their lives in workplace murders in the span of one month.

According to the balances İSİG releases every month, at least 144 workers have lost their lives in January, 128 in February and 126 in March. This brings the number of workers who lost their lives in the last 4 months to 575.

İSİG announced that 10 of the workers who lost their lives in April were women, and 167 were men, while the female workers were killed in the agriculture, textile, education, office work and education sectors.

The same balance stated that there are 4 minor workers, 2 of whom were under the age of 14, among the victims. 8 refugee/immigrant workers, 4 Afghan, 3 Syrian and 1 Azeri nationals, were also victims to workplace murders.

The report showed that the deaths were most frequent in agriculture, construction, commerce/office work, transportation, municipal work, energy and healthcare sectors. The cities with most workplace murders were Istanbul, Kocaeli, Manisa, Gaziantep, Eskişehir, İzmir, Antalya, Aydın, Bursa and Denizli.

Only 1 among the killed was a union member. İSİG also added: “Meanwhile, there could be other unionized workers who lost their lives. But we must state that we have no chance of giving clear information as the on-paper union memberships don’t translate to actual organized workers, and many unions do not defend their members who lost their lives.

İSİG also stated that since November 2002 when the AKP came to power, at least 21.022 workers have lost their lives.