Extended Summary

As of January 1, 2025, the Article 6 of Turkey’s Occupational Health and Safety Code No. 6331 entered into force for all workplaces, including those with fewer than 50 employees classified as low-hazard and public workplaces. Thus, all provisions of the Code No. 6331, which started to enter into force in 2012, have now come into force for all. However, as argued as the main argument in this article, this entry into force only occurred on paper. In reality, the overwhelming majority of workplaces in Turkey have been de facto and effectively excluded from OHS services and the scope of the law. As analysed in detail in this article, a highly flexible policy that allows employers of workplaces classified as low-hazardous with fewer than 50 employees to provide OHS services by participating in highly symbolic, accelerated, and unqualified online training programs has de facto paved the way for more than half of Turkey’s workforce to continue working without ever seeing an occupational physician or occupational safety specialist throughout their careers.
Crucially, workplaces with few employees should not be neglected in terms of occupational health and safety in Turkey; on the contrary, they deserve special attention and scrutiny regarding occupational accidents. Indeed, by 2023, 23% of work accidents and 56% of fatalities due to work accidents have occurred in micro-enterprises with fewer than 50 employees. In this context, the paper outlines rhetorical and theoretical criticisms regarding the drawbacks and impossibility of employer-provided OHS services.
As part of the empirical work, the scope and nature of training programs authorizing employers/employer representatives to personally provide OHS services were analysed. Accordingly, it was determined that the training provided was organized as online training, the training content was quite inadequate, it consisted of presenting general OHS information, sector-specific occupational safety information was not provided, no information was provided other than very superficial information on occupational diseases, no performance measurement was conducted at the end of the training, and a participant could complete the training in 4 to 5 hours without learning any subject and qualify for a certificate. In short, the trainings provided by the Ministry for the provision of OHS services by employers are found with empirical evidences to be quite inadequate. The findings identified during the field study reveal the administration’s faulty mentality and flawed policy design regarding the approach to OHS. It is found to be clear that it is impossible for employers to “provide” OHS services themselves, with inadequate training and no sector restrictions, and that such an approach contradicts scientific criteria and global examples in the field of OHS. Therefore, the 2012 OHS Reform has thus effectively failed as a result of flawed policy design during the reform phase and the fact that it was initiated without the necessary technical and administrative infrastructure.
The fundamental reason for this rather flawed “do-it-yourself” OHS practice is to avoid inconveniencing business owners and employers, effectively circumventing the legal obligation without incurring additional costs. This has been successfully achieved. In the workplaces of topic, OHS services have been reduced to a papermill service. This has paved the way for employees in these workplaces to never receive OHS services from OHS professionals. The problem lies in the mindset that provides OHS to workers as a burden and an additional cost. OHS is not a burden or a business cost; it is a means for employees to live decently and avoid death at work, a human right within the scope of social rights.
In summary, this article examines the implementation of OHS obligations for workplaces with fewer than fifty employees and classified as low-risk in Turkey. The principles of implementing OHS services directly by employers/employer’s representatives are scientifically examined and critiqued. The article analyses the recent de-professionalization of OHS discipline in Turkey due to regulations. In this context, the article identifies administrative factors contributing to the increase in occupational accidents.
OHS services provided by employers without professionalism are only acceptable in low-risk sectors and when supported by strong auditing systems. The Turkish example demonstrates that this approach can lead to serious structural weaknesses. Türkiye needs to restructure its policies in this area, drawing on international best practices. In order to address the weaknesses identified in the article, the paper recommended some corrective policy steps.