CHP member Rıfat Nalbantoğlu: "It is as if we are at war, more than 10 thousand workers have died in the last 5 years"

Republican People's Party Izmir Deputy and Turkish Grand National Assembly Human Rights Commission Member Rıfat Nalbantoğlu drew attention to the increasing work accidents in Turkey in recent years and said that the Parliament should take urgent action.

Nalbantoğlu stated that approximately 2 thousand workers lose their lives every year across the country and that this situation has now become an ordinary statistic.

“There are an average of 172 work accidents every day”
Deputy Nalbantoğlu stated that according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Assembly reports, an average of 172 work accidents occur every day in Turkey, 4-5 workers lose their lives in these accidents, and 5-6 workers become permanently disabled.

Emphasizing that most of these accidents are predictable and preventable, Nalbantoğlu said, "However, for this to happen, the workers of the country need to take a determined stance in favor of labor, as well as the awareness of the workers. Work accidents did not decrease during the AKP governments, they were only investigated when they came to the agenda. What happens to the worker, the laborer and his family."

More than 10 thousand workers lost their lives in the last 5 years
Nalbantoğlu shared the deaths in the last five years by year as follows: 2 thousand 427 workers lost their lives in 2020, 2 thousand 170 in 2021, 1,843 in 2022, 1,932 in 2023 and 1,897 in 2024.

“One worker dies every 3-4 hours”
Stating that 1,566 workers lost their lives in the first nine months of 2025, Nalbantoğlu said, "180 workers died in January, 124 in February, 159 in March, 156 in April, 178 in May, 164 in June, 207 in July, 192 in August and 206 in September. It seems like one worker dies every 3-4 hours."

“I invite the parliament to take action”
Nalbantoğlu stated that flexible and insecure working styles, lack of control and organizational obstacles play a major role in the increase in work accidents.

Nalbantoğlu, who called on the Parliament to take action with the research and question proposal he prepared, included the following statements in his proposal:
"In order to prevent work accidents that cause thousands of workers to lose their lives every year in our country, to increase inspections and to make penalties deterrent, I request that a Parliamentary investigation be opened in accordance with Articles 98 of the Constitution and Articles 104 and 105 of the GNAT Internal Regulations."

Kaynak: CUMHA - CUMHUR HABER AJANSI