Workers die at Tuzla shipyards

TURKEY: Two Tuzla shipyard workers have died in the last two weeks reports Limter İş which is attributing the fatalities to a weak health and safety policy and the failure of both the Turkish government and employers to improve the situation.

On November 29, 2009, Mahmut Altınöz, who worked for the company Geles Gemi, a subcontractor of the big shipyard Çeliktrans, fell to his death . Altınöz was 30 years old and a father of one child. A week later, on Sunday, December 6, Ercan Sancar, a father of three children, died following a fall from the depot’s dampers. His death is the 14th fatality at Tuzla shipyards this year.

In addition to the weak health and safety policies inside the yards, employers deny employees fundamental workers’ rights. At the Torgem shipyard in Tuzla, workers and members of Limter İş demanded to be paid four months wages in arrears and protested against the rapacity of the employer caused their comrades’ deaths.

The trade union Limter İş demands that the Turkish Employers’ Federation GİSBİR and the Ministry of Labour take adequate measures among others including:

• Workers dismissed after their protests must be reinstated;
• Those responsible for the occupational murders must be liable.
• Health and safety regulations on hard and difficult work must be introduced at the shipyards.
• The working day should not exceed 7.5 hours.
• The main employer must pay full social security contributions for workers based on their real wages.
• Workers should have access to medical services including infirmary, doctor and ambulance.
• System of subcontracting must be removed
• Freedom of association must be respected
• A special independent commission must be created for investigations at the shipyards with consequent sanctions. Limter İs, TMMOB (Engineers Chamber), TTB (Doctors’ Chamber), Baro (Lawyers), Labour Ministry and GİSBİR (Employers’ Federation) must be represented in this commission.