Occupational disease

ZEYNEP AKGÜL

Ankara - Workers' Memorial Day takes place annually around the world on April 28. It is an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work.,

We spoke to Aslı Odman, a social scientist and volunteer of Istanbul Laborer Health and Occupational Safety Assembly (İSİG) about the number of workers who lost their lives and become disabled due to occupational diseases or accidents, why the deaths by occupational diseases and accidents are covered up, why the deaths of many workers in the construction industry are not mentioned in official statistics.

·         In Turkey, a regulatory law was issued to recognize the Covid-19 as a work-related disease but why have the applications demanding the recognition of occupational diseases to the Social Security Institution (SSI) been rejected?

In the circular issued by the Ministry of Health in December 2020 on the healthcare workers, who lost their lives or became disabled on active due to the Covid-19, the ministry does not automatically recognize the healthcare workers' diseases as occupational disease. In this respect, it keeps performing the state's previous policy on occupational diseases. In Turkey, there was already a huge social insurance system and a huge bureaucracy against building a relationship between diseases and work. Those who infected with the Covid-19, even if they are healthcare workers while working have faced the same system. Today, if a nurse dies of Covid-19, her/his family has to prove that she/he was infected with Covid-19 while working. Thus, the system makes workplaces untouchable. It puts the responsibility of proving on workers or families. As far as I know, only an application has been accepted until now; the lawsuit opened by Dr. Salih Cenap’s wife Pınar Çevli in June 2020.  But the doctor’s wife had to prove that her husband was infected with Covid-19 while working.”

10 to 15 thousand employees lost their lives due to occupational diseases

·         Does the Ministry of Health have a medical record system regarding occupational diseases? The number of workers who lost their lives or become disabled due to occupational diseases in Turkey is unreachable. Why are deaths due to occupational diseases covered up?

Yes, it has but the system only records the applications of a handful of workers, who faced long costly, and risky processes. Although 10 to 15 thousand workers lost their lives due to occupational diseases, which we describe as workplace homicide over the long term, according to official statistics nobody seems to have died since 2013.Every year, at least 10 percent of those who died of cancer actually died of cancer they got at workplaces.”

·         Recently, cargo employees have faced many rights violations. As İSİS, have you carried out any work about rights violations faced by cargo employees?

Istanbul Laborer Health and Occupational Safety Assembly hasn’t prepared a sub-report on any sector or professional practice. Since April 2020, the main reason for workplace homicide has been Covid-19. It only released two reports; one was released for the first four months of the pandemic and the second was released on the anniversary of the COVID-19 outbreak. The two reports included the data of deaths due to Covid-19

“Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living”

·         Do you have demands and suggestions against the deepening of inequality?

I want to answer this question with the slogan of Workers' Memorial Day 2021; “Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living”. Workers' health does not only about the bodies of factory workers. Workers' health cannot be postponed to a victorious future.