The Istanbul Council for Workers' Health and Work Safety (İSİG) has reported that at least 164 workers, including nine workers under the age of 18, lost their lives in June.

At least 15 workers died as a result of the high temperatures across Turkey over the last week, including seven construction workers, resulting in calls to prohibit work in extreme temperatures.

According to the June work accident report compiled by İSİG, at least 906 workers lost their lives in the first six months of 2017.

The report also said that the 5 percent growth rate in the first quarter of 2017 was achieved amid increased work accidents, bans on strikes and trade union repression.

The report on deaths from work accidents revealed that 123 of the 164 workers who had died on the job in June were laborers, 29 were farmers or small landowners and 12 were tradespeople, while 41 of the individuals worked on their own behalf.

Agriculture and forestry was the deadliest sector in June with 49 worker deaths, followed by construction with 36 and transport with 21 deaths.

Traffic and shuttle accidents remained the main cause of worker deaths taking the lives of 42 laborers.