The Relationship between Privatization and Occupational Safety in Coal Industryin Turkey; A Statistical Review of Coal Mine Accidents

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of the article is to examine the causes of the increase in work - related accidents in the coal mining industry in Turkey. Furthermore, the article aims to investigate the impact of private sector employment and privatization process to occupational health and safety conditions in coal mining industry in Turkey Study Design: The data used in the study are prepared by using the official occupational accident statistics taken from Turkish Social Security Institution and the tables that present the sectoral contribution of the insured workers. The number of recorded official occupational acci dents, number of insured workers and number of workers who work for private and public sector are used to make comments on the data. Occupational accident rates per sector are calculated on the basis of years. Methodology : In this study, occupational accid ents, accident rates, standardized occupational accidents rates and changes of insured workers of private and public sector were investigated in the coal mining industry. Outsourcing, privatization and growth rates of private sector employment in coal mini ng sector were compared with the increase of standardized occupational accident rates, and its impact on accidents in coal mining was investigated. Results: The rate of the employees of private sector i n coal mining increased from 31% to 75 % in