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In May 2006 the three separate social security institutions of Turkey were combined under the Social Security Institution. Paid and permanent agricultural employees were covered with compulsory insurance. The new social security law abolished the voluntary insurance program for casual agricultural workers reserving the rights of the present members. The casual agricultural workers were entitled to pay contributions to the voluntary insurance program prepared for nonworking people.
Methods
In this study, the 2000-2009 data of Social Security Institution, the only officially authorized institution to collect those data, and the matching data of Eurostat were used.
Results
The incidence rate of occupational injuries (per 100000 workers) has fallen from 1660 in 2000 to 620 in 2009. The numbers of recorded occupational diseases are around 1000 in the 2000’s, although the estimates of ILO lay between 30000 and 100000. Comparing with the incidence rates of occupational injuries in EU countries, Turkey has very low incidence rates between 2000-2009 in agriculture. As the incidence rate in EU has decreased from 7250 in 2000 to 4213 in 2007, it has changed from 96 to 87 in Turkey in the same period.
Discussion
Regarding the low incidence rates of occupational injuries, the situation in agriculture is more questionable than it is in whole sectors. Because of the low contribution system, people who actually weren’t occupied with agriculture declared their status to SII as agricultural workers. Second, the employer does not want to report because of the fear of being punished. Third, employees are mostly deprived of a health service. Fourth, phycisians are not able to recognize the occupational health problems. Finally, the worker is afraid to lose his job and therefore doesn't want to inform the employer. To improve the quality in Occupational Health Practice in Turkey, the extent of the health problems should be known correctly.