Occupational accidents in registered and unregistered employment: Case of Antalya

This study analyzes "occupational accident" reports issued in 2019, 2020, and 2021, found in the Antalya Social Security Provincial Directorate Archive. What distinguishes this study from similar ones is its multidimensional approach to occupational accidents. The study examines the victim's gender, age, insurance status at the time of the accident, whether they had professional experience and their length of employment at the workplace where the occupational accident occurred, the work being carried out at the time of the accident, the industry sector of the workplace where the occupational accident occurred, whether the victim had received basic Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and vocational training prior to the accident, whether the victim was provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) at the time of the accident and whether the occupational accident was related to this training and PPE, the start time of the shift and the accident times, the type of injury caused by the occupational accident, the location of the injury on the body, whether the event causing the injury occurred while the victim was performing their primary job, the harm caused to the victim by the accident (death, permanent disability, etc.), how occupational accident applications were concluded (occupational accident, not an occupational accident, occupational accident status could not be determined), the fault rates and fault justifications given to the parties of the accident, namely the worker, the employer, and third party(ies), the evidence that made it possible to detect unreported occupational accidents, the reasons why determinations could not be made in applications where occupational accident status could not be determined, the reasons for deciding that applications were not occupational accidents, whether the employer reported the occupational accident and how long after the accident the victim or their beneficiaries applied for occupational accident status in cases where the employer did not report the occupational accident, and in how many occupational accident applications income was provided to the victim or their beneficiary, and these findings were transferred to a data form. Statistical evaluations were performed using the Pearson Chi-Square Test, Fisher's Exact Test, Mann Whitney U Test, and Kruskal Wallis Test. The study concluded that the majority of victims were male and in the 31-50 age range, that unreported occupational accidents occurring during unregistered employment and not reported by employers were common, and that occupational accidents were mostly experienced by individuals with little professional experience and those newly employed at a workplace. According to the work being carried out at the time of the accident, most accidents occurred during construction work, service (sales and other commercial activities), while in motion (traffic accidents) including vehicles, and production, manufacturing, processing, and storage work. According to the industry code, occupational accidents mostly occurred in the construction, accommodation and entertainment, and trade, office, education, and fine arts sectors. It was determined that the vast majority of accidents occurred in workplaces located in the Kepez and Muratpaşa districts, the most common type of injury was "bone fractures," the most frequently injured body region was "various affected regions of the body," and the most common causes of injury were falls from height, collisions/impacts with vehicles or objects, and contact with sharp materials or tools. It was revealed that a significant number of victims had not received basic and vocational OHS training and that PPE was not available at the time of the accident. It was found that the number of occupational accidents increased with the extension of working hours, that the majority of accidents occurred while the victim was performing their primary job, that almost half of the occupational accidents resulted in the victim's disability rate being 10% or higher, that the reasons for the fault rates given to workers and employers due to the accidents were due to the parties' failure to fulfill their responsibilities specified in Law No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety, that occupational accidents could be detected with the evidence obtained even if the employer did not report the occupational accident, and that in the absence of this evidence, occupational accident determinations could not be made or applications were not evaluated as occupational accidents. With all these studies, it was aimed to emphasize the importance of the SSI in terms of the rights and benefits provided due to occupational accidents, to discuss how much the occupational accident statistics in Turkey reflect the reality, and to create a profile of occupational accidents specific to the province of Antalya. Keywords: Work Accidents, Work Accident Detection, Social Security.