Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan said, “I believe that we need to take more effective steps to keep occupational health and safety standards high and to combat unregistered employment. For this reason, the upcoming process will be a process in which inspections will be much stricter. We will continue to carry out our work with zero tolerance and zero compromise on this issue.”
The April 2024 ordinary meeting of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) Assembly was held with the main agenda of 'While Looking at Working Life with a Visionary Approach; Expectations of Our Industrialists and Solution Suggestions'. Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan also attended the meeting. In his speech at the meeting, Işıkhan said that more effective steps will be taken on occupational safety and unregistered employment, and that inspections will become more frequent. Referring to the increase in the number of employment, Minister Işıkhan said, “Compared to the previous year, the number of labor force increased by 775 thousand people and the number of employment increased by 1 million 156 thousand people. In recent years, our country has reached the highest level of employment figures in its history.
Reminding that the country is going through difficult times, Minister Işıkhan said, “As Türkiye, despite the process we are going through due to both global financial conditions and the natural disasters and epidemics we have overcome in recent years; our investment, production and employment policy continues to be our most important agenda item in the context of our future goals. The most important component of this vision is our industrial sector. Therefore, the industrial sector remains the lifeblood of our economy and the lifeblood of our development goals for the Turkish Century.
Pointing out that Türkiye continues to grow no matter what the conditions are, Mr. Işıkhan said: “Despite the challenging global conditions and the disasters we have experienced, our country is among the countries with the highest annual growth among EU and OECD countries. We grew by 4.5 percent in 2023. GDP per capita was calculated as 307 thousand 952 TL at current prices and 13 thousand 110 in US dollars in 2023. Of course, a stable investment - production process brings with it an increase in employment. Recent employment figures also confirm this situation. In particular, we have achieved a steady and impressive momentum in employment and labor force in recent months.
Sharing the figures on employment figures, Işıkhan said, “Compared to the previous year, the number of labor force increased by 775 thousand people and the number of employment increased by 1 million 156 thousand people. Proportionally, the labor force participation rate increased by 0.8 points and the employment rate increased by 1.4 points. Our labor force participation rate has reached the highest level in history.
This shows that our citizens are more actively participating in the labor force and serving our economy with confidence. As the Ministry, we have implemented important incentives and support practices in order to provide the greatest possible contribution to our employers to increase their employment figures. While improving the investment and production environment on the one hand, on the other hand, we fulfill our duty of being a solid bridge in recruitment and supply of qualified labor.
1.2 points increase in female employment rate
Işıkhan added that there has been a significant increase in the female employment rate with the İş Pozitif program and said, “The female employment rate increased by 1.2 points compared to the previous year. With İş Pozitif, which we launched on February 9th in order to support women's employment, we have made a significant progress especially in registered women's employment. Since February 9th, the number of women placed in jobs across Türkiye has reached 100 thousand people as of today. In Istanbul province, 31 thousand 543 women have been employed.
We can say that we have breathed new life into the employment process through İŞKUR. With the project, we aimed both to prevent unregistered employment and to make communication between employers and job seekers easier. We have achieved our goals to a great extent. We will reach even better levels with our strong road maps such as the Medium Term Program and the 12th Development Plan.
“Occupational health and safety should be removed from Türkiye's main agenda item”
Minister Işıkhan gave the message that inspections on occupational safety and unregistered employment will become more frequent and said, “Unfortunately, one of the important agenda items of working life is occupational accidents.
As you know, there has been a succession of sad news, especially recently. These sad incidents and occupational accidents that have caused serious loss of life have shown us once again that not only the guidance role in occupational health and safety, but also the inspection and supervision duties should be increased with zero tolerance and great sensitivity. We are working hard to ensure a safe working environment in our country at all times.
In this context, I believe that we need to take more effective steps in keeping occupational health and safety standards high and in combating unregistered employment. For this reason, the coming period will be a period in which inspections will be much stricter. We will continue to work on this issue with zero tolerance and zero compromise. The issue of occupational health and safety should no longer be the main agenda item of Türkiye, which plans for a century.
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