5 workers die every day while working
The İSİG Assembly has released its April report on workplace murders. At least 152 workers lost their lives in workplace incidents during the month. As poverty deepens, at least 8 children pushed into labour also died while working in April.
Labour Service
As poverty deepens, children are being pushed into labour. The lack of even the most basic precautions continues to threaten workers’ lives. Dozens of labourers are torn away from their lives every month across Turkey.
The Health and Safety Labour Watch (İSİG) Assembly has released its report on workplace murders for April. At least 152 workers were killed in workplace incidents during the month. In April, at least 8 children died while working. In 2025, a year in which at least 54 workers have died every day, the number of workplace deaths reached 611 in the first four months.
As in many previous months, the construction sector topped the list for fatal workplace incidents. Of the workers who died while working, 22% were in construction/road works, 20% in agriculture/forestry, 9% in transportation, 7% in trade/education and 6% in the metal sector.
When analysed by sector, 49 deaths occurred in industry, 37 in services, 35 in construction and 31 in agriculture.
Those who died most frequently in workplace incidents included forestry workers in agriculture, informal workers in industry and construction and long-haul drivers groups working in precarious conditions across sectors.
NOT EVEN BASIC PRECAUTIONS IN PLACE
The data once again revealed that the lack of even the most basic precautions in each sector was a key cause of workplace deaths.
Falls from height accounted for 33% of deaths in the construction sector, traffic accidents for 90% in transportation, and crushing incidents for 48% in agriculture.
In a country with the longest average working hours in Europe, where the government still has not ratified ILO Convention No. 190 on preventing violence, harassment and mobbing in the workplace, deaths caused by heart attacks or brain haemorrhages occurred across nearly all sectors.
According to the report, 8 children died in workplace incidents in April. Two were working in agriculture, two in construction, and one each in mining, energy, general labour and accommodation sectors. The report noted that there are 1,372,000 registered child workers and reminded that about one in four children aged 15–17 is part of the workforce. The İSİG Assembly also underlined that during the summer, with schools closed and seasonal work increasing, the number of working children nears 2 million.
POVERTY TURNS CHILDREN INTO WORKERS
The report states: "According to the OECD, at least 6.5 million children in our country live in ‘severe poverty’. One in five children is not adequately nourished, one in four goes to school hungry. Children, who are our future, have become dependent on aid. The number of children receiving support under the ‘Social and Economic Support Programme’ has reached 172,000. Child poverty is driving more children into the workforce! One of the main reasons for the spread of child labour is that it has been turned into a policy. In order to meet the demand for cheap labour in labour-intensive sectors, more and more children are being pushed into poverty, removed from education and turned into workers. The legal reduction of the candidate apprenticeship age to 11–12, the expansion of Vocational Training Centres (MESEM), and incentives like financial support for businesses employing children are all contributing to the increase in child labour," the report said.
Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Her gün 5 işçi çalışırken ölüyor, published in BirGün newspaper on May 9, 2025.
