At least 106 workers lost their lives in February, says Health and Safety Labor Watch

At least 106 workers lost their lives in occupational homicides in February, according to the Health and Safety Labor Watch (ISIG).

119 workers were killed in January, while 106 died in February.

Among the 106 killed workers, 97 were wageworkers (workers and civil servants) and nine were working on their own behalf. Eight of the killed workers were women and 98 were men.

The highest number of deaths were in the sectors of construction/road, agriculture/forestry, transportation, trade/office/education, healthcare, mining, textiles, metalwork, accommodation, municipality/general works, ship/shipyard and security.

Non-unionised workers

One third of the occupational homicides were in the construction sector and one third were in the industrial sector. At least four delivery workers were killed. 

Nine refugee workers were killed in February. Five of them are from Syria and the others from Indonesia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Russia and Serbia.

The most common causes of deaths were falling from a height, crush/collapse, traffic/shuttle accident, heart attack, Covid-19, explosion/fire, poisoning/suffocation, suicide, violence and being hit by an object.

More than half of the incidents of falling from a height occurred in the construction sector.

Child workers

In February, at least three workers lost their lives while working. One of them was an agricultural worker, one was a delivery worker and one was an intern.

31 of the killed workers were over 51. They worked in agriculture, education, office, metal, construction, transport, ship and healthcare.