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THE LAW ON OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

The Law on Occupational Health and Safety Numbered 6331 (hereinafter referred to as the “Law”, in Turkish “6331 sayılı İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Kanunu”), governing the health and safety standards to be adopted by employers in Turkey, has been published in the Official Gazette numbered 28339, dated 30 June 2012. This Newsletter provides information on the scope of the Law and its implications on employers.

Scope of the Law

This Law covers all types of employment, work and workplaces that belong to public and private sectors, employers of the workplaces and representatives/agents of such employers, and all employees including apprentices, interns and trainees, regardless of the fields of activity in which they are involved, other than a few exceptions explicitly stated in this Law.

These exceptions, as stated in Article 2 of the Law are as follows: (i) activities of the Turkish Armed Forces, police, gendarmerie and other law enforcement forces, and the Undersecretariat of National Intelligence Organization, excluding factories, maintenance centers, sewing/ tailoring workshops and similar workplaces, (ii) activities of disaster and emergency management units, (iii) household services, (iv) persons involved in the production of goods and services on their own behalf and account and who do not employ any workers or other employees and (v) education, security and vocational courses provided to convicts and detainees within the scope of rehabilitation program and (vi) navigation on international waters of the vessels of maritime transport.

Employers’ Obligations as per the Law

For the purposes of this Law, employer representatives who act on behalf of the employer shall also be considered as the employer.

In accordance with the Law, employer has to:

  1. Take the necessary precautions for the prevention of occupational risks, the training of the employees and giving debriefing to the employees (Article 4),
  2. Assign an occupational safety specialist (in Turkish, “ güvenliği uzmanı”) and an occupational physician (in Turkish, “işyeri hekimi”) (Article 6),
  3. Provide the occupational safety specialist and the occupational physician with the “appropriate working conditions and time” (Article 8),
  4. Conduct a risk assessment with respect to the health and safety of the employees (Article 10),
  5. Prepare emergency plans (Article 11),
  6. Keep the occupational diseases and accidents records and to report the same to the Social Security Authority (Article 14),
  7. Perform health examination of employees (Article 15),
  8. Ensure that each employee receives safety and health training (Article 17),
  9. Assign an employee representative (Article 20).

Administrative Fines Foreseen by the Law

Failure to abide by the requirements of the Law may lead to various administrative fines. For instance;

    • failure to appoint sufficient number of workplace doctor(s) or occupational safety expert(s) leads to an administrative fine of TRY 5,000 for each doctor or expert not employed for each month of non-employment;
    • failure to make risk assessment leads to an administrative fine of TRY 3,000 for the first month and TRY 4,500 for each consecutive month of failure;
    • failure to keep a record of all occupational accidents and diseases and make necessary examination and prepare a report leads to an administrative fine of TRY 1,500;
    • failure to ensure health examinations of the employees leads to an administrative fine of TRY 1,000 per each employee who has not been subject to any health examination or who has not received any medical report.

Please note that the abovementioned obligations are only the principal ones that shall be fulfilled by the employer. For other obligations and special provisions regarding the workplaces subject to different hazard classes, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our Firm remains at your disposal for any further clarifications you may require.

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