EXTENDED SUMMARY

The project of modernity, which aims the salvation of humanity and the enrichment of social life, points to a “human condition” in which free and creative individuals transform the social by contributing to the “common knowledge of humanity”. Although the free individual has freedom of action in the economic field in theory, the “Liberal story” focused mainly on the freedom of the individual in this area, yet also leading to the emergence of “high tensions”. The relationship between economic action and the freedom of the individual has affected the solidarity principle of modernity and blessed the “isolated individual” instead of the “autonomous individual”. Social policies envisaged the protection of individuals, and “protection of the individual’s good health” was accepted as a human right. However, when the issue is the health of the working individual, the contradictions arising from the nature of capitalist production relations bring the economic field and the ethical field up against each other. Because, while the system places getting “maximum benefit” from the individual in the centre, it has undertaken the obligation to protect the health of the employee. This dual structure leads to tensions that are felt even stronger in countries with problematic production relations such as Turkey.

Small and medium-sized enterprises constitute the majority of workplaces in Turkey. Nearly half of the employees work for minimum wage and the minimum wage indicates the hunger limit for a family of four. There is a high level of unemployment together with youth unemployment, socio-economic pressure created by millions of asylum seekers in the country, an ever-increasing high current account deficit and high inflation. One-third of the country’s population consists of those with secondary education or below. Protecting the health of employees is the responsibility of the employer while monitor this responsibility is the duty of the state.

The emphasis of modernity on individual autonomy does not point to the isolation of the individual from society. On the contrary, individual identity can only be realised in relation to social groups and individuals. Although the health-disease issue is a matter of personal space, the health-disease perception does not occur independently of the individual’s relations with society. Employee health includes individual privacy and legal-ethical areas. As an employee, the individual’s perception of health or disease has a special place. Because, their health has deteriorated and they have been labelled “sick” as an employee, not as an ordinary person. As an economic actor, they had been affected by the detrimental effects of the working environment, their ability to work has been affected, and therefore they moved out of the ordinary atmosphere of capitalist production relations. That is, they have deviated from the “normal”.

Discussions of modernity seem far from being an sufficiently right starting point for societies experiencing social and economic tremor. For this reason, when questioning whether the renewal and transformation on the basis of modernity is fully realised in societies with different socio-economic dynamics, one should remember not stick to the approaches used for advanced industrial societies.

Our unskilled or blue-collar cases show similarities with the proletariat class defined by Standing. Although these cases are “legally” protected in Turkey, the reality of the labour market is different. Having an occupational disease caused by work conditions and its consequences is a situation that is ignored. Therefore, the views of unskilled workers about their health perceptions related to work-related health problems and their applications to health institutions can form a basis for discussing the individual’s understanding of work, workplace and social life. In our study, we focused on the relationship between working people, which is an important actor of the economic system, and health, which is a private area. By interpreting the health perception data of a group of blue-collar workers in Turkey in the context of their own social position, we aimed to understand the effects on “social renewal and transformation contributed by individuals who work freely and creatively”, which forms the basis of modernity. We conducted our research using a structured questionnaire by interviewing the cases who were referred to Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Medicine, Occupational Diseases Polyclinic with the suspicion of work-related health problems after receiving the approval of the ethics committee.

102 cases, all of which are male with a mean age of 39.3±8.1 years, participated in our study. The majority of the cases consisted of workers who did not receive any training or certificate for their work. Our findings supported that work that requires physical strength is generally accepted as male work, and the characteristics observed in societies with traditional characteristics such as the obligation of men to earn money and take care of their families are dominant. We found that the education level of the cases was compatible with the general education profile of the country. Individuals seem to be moving to business life quickly after secondary school.

Most of our cases came from workplaces employing 50 or more workers. The existence of work-related health problems leads to discussion of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety (ISG) studies in these workplaces. It also indicates that employees work without questioning the dangers of their jobs. In other words, they feel forced to work in the workplace. We have seen that the fact that the cases are unionized has a limited effect on the level of consciousness about OHS. Although the individual health perception was positively affected as the education level of the cases increased, a high rate of the cases diagnosed with Occupational Disease (OD) thought that they were not healthy. We have found supporting findings that anxieties such as being fired and stigmatized may affect health-related thoughts.

Consequently, incompetence is synonymous with insecurity. Working, making money and living become the sole purpose. Living by continuing to be in a state of “have to work” is a state of being “stuck” which is different from “insecurity”. Although the system accepts the employment contract as the expression of the individual’s free will, the fact that the individual is compressed into structures that have become almost impossible to change or transform means that the freedom of the individual is restricted.   This life is a state of being not only stuck as an unskilled worker, but also being “confined” by social codes. Confinement is separation, division and exclusion. In addition to the current conditions, being diagnosed with OD or even being referred only with the suspicion of the disease is a state of being disconnected from the whole and considered abnormal for the employee. The person is stigmatized as “sick” in the workplace and social area. The state of being healthy loses its ontological priority of the individual. When asked if they have any complaints, the answer will be different from that of a free individual who has no concerns about life.   It would not be wrong to say that our cases, each, in their solitude, are ready to give any answer for the sake of maintaining their working status. Current conditions hollow out the concept of “free labor” and even introduce an evolved form of non-wage – forced labor.

The expendability of unskilled workers in Turkey shows similarities with what Bourdieu defines as insecurity. Although it is accepted that the so-called priorities of human rights in advanced welfare society offer opportunities that promise a safer environment to working people, it is not possible to ignore the minimum wage-poverty relationship. To be blue-collar means to be universally stuck-confined.