Developments in occupational health and safety in the human development process: An assessment for Turkey

In each period of the history, humankind has canalized to different struggles to maintain her/his life within the bounds of possibility. Especially aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of factories which are capable of mass production and mechanization in every field have provided a rapid economic growth process. However, this process has also increased negativities such as occupational illness/disease and accident among the employees, due to the working environment. Today, the health has been considered as a significant social indicator in determining the development levels of the countries. Therefore, occupational health and safety, including issues such as determining occupational accidents, occupational diseases which negatively affect the health of employees and taking necessary precautions have been earnestly considered by the developed countries. The aim of the study within this context is propound the significance of occupational health and safety for the human development of the countries and to analyze the Turkey's current condition in terms of occupational health and safety. In order to achieve this objective, the theoretical framework that emphasizes the importance of occupational health and safety in the context of human development has been considered at first. Secondly, it has been assessed how the developments in the field of occupational health and safety around the world has reflected to occupational health and safety in Turkey before the Republic period and the next period and in our times. In the next part, statistical analyzes on both the countries around the world and Turkey which are related to the issue mentioned have been carried out. In analyses on the countries, it has been tested first, the relationship between occupational accidents and human development level of countries and then whether there has been difference between the countries with very high levels of human development and the other countries or not in terms of occupational accidents. In the analysis that applied to Turkey in the field of occupational health and safety, short term effects of Act. No. 6331 which was enacted in 2012 in order to propose more permanent solutions on occupational accidents and occupational diseases have been analyzed.