Effects of Unionization on Work Accidents: Turkey Example

Unions are one of the important non-governmental organizations that negotiate between employers and employees, such as providing protective equipment to employees and participating in joint health and safety committees. In this study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between the level of unionization and occupational accidents in Turkey. The data were obtained from the Statistical Yearbooks of the Social Security Institution between the years 2014-2021 and the work life statistics book of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. JAMOVI 2.3.28 software program was used in the statistical analysis of the data. The significance level was taken as 0.05. It has been determined that there is a linear increase in unionization rates and the number of insured workers from 2014 to 2021. While a positive, statistically significant and strong relationship was found between the number of unionized workers and the number of occupational accidents (r=0.952; p˂.001), no statistically significant relationship was found between the total number of unionized workers and fatal occupational accidents (-0.398; p=0.239). In addition, it has been found that the number of unionized workers is dependent on occupational accidents and there is a linear relationship. As a result, it was concluded that unionization did not have a positive effect on occupational accidents.