Under Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 and the Turkish Code of Obligations (Art. 417), the employer is obliged to take every necessary measure to ensure the health and safety of the employee, and to keep the necessary equipment and tools complete. Where a workplace accident occurs as a result of a breach of this obligation, the employer's legal and criminal liability may arise.
How Is the Employer's Fault Determined?
In the expert examination conducted after a workplace accident, the respective degrees of fault of the employer (lack of necessary training/equipment, insufficient supervision) and, where applicable, the employee, are determined separately. Even where the employer is not at fault, the fact that the workplace accident occurred during the performance of the work is sufficient for the purposes of the guarantees provided by the Social Security Institution; however, the degree of fault is decisive for compensation claims.
Heads of Compensation
An employee who suffers a workplace accident, or their relatives in the event of death, may claim compensation from the employer under the following heads:
- Material compensation - Treatment expenses, loss of earnings, and future loss of income calculated according to the permanent incapacity rate.
- Moral compensation - Compensation for the pain and distress the accident causes the employee and their relatives.
- Compensation for loss of support - For the relatives left without the support of a person who dies as a result of the accident.
Relationship with Benefits Provided by the Social Security Institution
The Social Security Institution provides an insured person who suffers a workplace accident with benefits such as temporary/permanent incapacity allowance and, where necessary, recourse-based collection from the employer. However, these payments received from the Social Security Institution do not entirely eliminate the employer's legal liability; a separate compensation claim can be filed against the employer for the portion of the loss not covered by the Institution (offset within the framework of recourse and the "prohibition of unjust enrichment" principle).
Conclusion
Workplace accident compensation is a technical process requiring expert examination, dependent on correctly determining the degree of fault and fully establishing the heads of loss (material, moral, loss of support).
You can prepare a source-backed petition for your workplace accident compensation case using Lawyer Services' Create Petition tool.