15 workers died at work last year, small number of inspectors

Currently, only 37 working inspectors are available to monitor law enforcement.

The head of the Labour Inspectorate, Iron Nikci, in an interview for Online Economics, has said most deaths occur in the construction sector. As a result of that, The IP has managed to increase the number of field inspections. While for fines pronounced by this institution, there are 359 sosh.

This report finds that in 2022 we've had 15 deaths in the workplace, the overwhelming share of these deaths occurs in the construction sector, so this is a more problematic sector that we as job inspectors face. The rest of you may be aware that during 2022, especially in the second six months of 2022, we have increased the number of inspections, and as a result, we have reached the ferry set up with HINA ERA, which was 6 thousand, we've exceeded this number and we've reached 6032 inspections. Fines pronounced for 2022 we have had 319 fines”, Nikci said, while adding that the fines pronounced are for the construction sector.

The number of these fines has been pronounced mainly in the construction sector, as this is the sector where the law for security and health at work, but the labour law also finds or faces more violations. Causes of death are at work, workers who have died in the country construction workshops are mainly because they are not equipped with protective tools at their place of work”, Nikci said.

Nikci also talked about the revenues they had during the past year. According to him, total revenues for 2022 are more than 581 thousand euros.

“During 2022 Work inspectors mainly in the second period of 2022 have achieved some success, during this period we have implemented 14 procurement activities, which have been aimed at building the labor capacities of the labour inspectors by starting to upgrade offices, provided with information technology. Also in 2022, we had increased revenues and I can tell you that total revenues for 2022 are 581 thousand 367.85 euros, where those in January-May 2022 revenues were 174 thousand and 357.89 euros”, he said.

The challenge for this institution remains the small number of inspectors, with only 37 in total. Nikci hopes that number will increase as he says they are in recruiting procedures.

“The main challenges the Inspectorate faces are the few job inspectors, currently we have 37 job inspectors, 30 of them are men, and 7 are women. With this number of inspectors we have it's impossible to do law enforcement on satisfactory levels. So we've taken action to increase this number and we're in process of new recruits. For this year it is an increase in the number of job inspectors, increased capacity in the Labour Inspectorate, especially with formal vehicles”, he says.