Workplace emergency alert in Türkiye: alerting everyone, the safety headcount and drills

The real problem in an emergency: communication and headcount

In most workplaces news of an emergency spreads by announcement, a phone tree or a messaging group. An announcement is not heard in every section, a phone tree stops at the first broken link, and in a messaging group an unread alert and an “I’m safe” reply get lost on the same screen. A headcount at the assembly point is also incomplete if it is done without knowing who was at work that day.

Emergency preparedness therefore has to answer two questions: how to alert everyone at once and how to count who is safe and who needs help. Both come after the written plan; neither replaces it.

Employer emergency duties under Law No. 6331

The Occupational Health and Safety Law regulates emergencies in four articles. In short:

• Emergency plan (Art. 11). The employer assesses possible emergencies in advance, takes preventive and limiting measures against their effects, and prepares emergency plans after the necessary measurements and assessments.
• Teams, training and drills (Art. 11). Taking into account the size of the workplace, its special hazards, the nature of the work and the number of employees, the employer appoints a sufficient number of trained people for prevention, protection, evacuation, firefighting and first aid, provides the equipment and has their training and drills carried out; it also arranges contact with organisations outside the workplace.
• Evacuation (Art. 12). For serious, imminent and unavoidable danger, the employer makes arrangements in advance and gives instructions so that employees can stop work and immediately go to a safe place. An employee who cannot inform their supervisor at once must be able to intervene within their knowledge and means.
• Right to refuse work (Art. 13). An employee facing serious and imminent danger may ask for the situation to be assessed; if the danger cannot be avoided, they leave the workplace or the dangerous area for a safe place, and their rights cannot be restricted for doing so.
• Reporting work accidents (Art. 14). The employer keeps a record of work accidents and reports a work accident to the Social Security Institution within three working days after the accident.

A notification app does not fulfil any of these duties on its own. It is a tool that speeds up carrying out the plan: the alert reaches everyone at once, and the headcount is taken from the answers that come in, not from a paper list.

How should an emergency button be designed?

An “emergency button” carries two opposite risks: being too slow in a real event, and throwing the whole workplace into panic with an accidental tap. A good design balances both:

• A few seconds of press-and-hold against accidental taps, followed by choosing the event type and a final confirmation. An alert that goes with one tap also goes from a phone in a pocket.
• Everyone at once, impossible to miss. A full-screen alert with sound on open screens, a push notification to phones with the screen off.
• 112 always the first option. The first button in the alert window should be the emergency call; an internal alert does not replace the official emergency number.
• Cancellable but not erasable. An alert sent by mistake should be cancellable within a short time with a cancellation sent to everyone; the event record itself should not be deleted.
• A limit against noise. One active event at a time and a daily cap per person keep the alert meaningful.
• Who can start what? Decisions such as drills and evacuation calls should be tied to authority; every alert should be recorded with who and when.

The safety headcount: who is safe, who needs help?

Letting everyone who receives the alert report their status with one tap speeds up the headcount at the assembly point and includes people who cannot reach it. Answers fall into four groups:

The headcount does not replace the assembly and evacuation steps in the emergency plan; it complements them.

Who sees the named list is also a decision: the headcount itself (how many received it, how many are safe, how many need help) should be open to management, while the person-by-person list should be limited to those authorised to view attendance.

Emergency drills: why keep a record?

Article 11 of Law No. 6331 lists having the training and drills of the appointed people carried out among the employer’s duties. How often and with what content drills are held depends on the workplace’s hazard class and its emergency plan; decide this with your occupational safety specialist.

• Mark the drill clearly. A drill alert should reach everyone clearly marked “DRILL” and must not be confused with a real alert.
• Tie starting it to authority. Only management should start a drill; letting employees start drills undermines the seriousness of a real alert.
• Record the result. The drill’s date, duration and response rate are among the records showing the duty was fulfilled; they can be kept alongside the paper report.
• Keep it out of the count. A drill should not count towards misuse measures such as the per-person alert cap.

Location and personal data in an emergency: proportionality

The Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 requires personal data to be processed in a way that is connected to the purpose, limited and proportionate. In an emergency this means taking location only from the person who starts the alert and the person asking for help, and only at that moment; keeping a continuous location trail on emergency grounds goes beyond proportionality. If location permission is not given, the alert should still go without location: delivery of the alert must not depend on location.

Mistaken or false alerts

An alert sent by mistake is cancelled and everyone is notified; the event is closed as a “false alarm” but not deleted from the record. In a deliberate false alert, the assessment and any disciplinary process are the employer’s; the app’s job is to keep the record complete: who, when, which type. The per-person daily limit only limits noise and, when reached, reminds the person of 112.

Emergency alert checklist

• Is the emergency plan written, are the teams appointed, is the assembly point defined?
• Does the alert reach everyone at once — including staff in the field, on shift, or with the phone in a pocket?
• Is 112 the first option in the alert window?
• Does an accidental tap send an alert? Can a mistaken alert be cancelled while the record is kept?
• Is the headcount kept automatically from the answers? Are non-responders matched with the day’s clock-in records?
• Is a drill marked “DRILL” and recorded with date, duration and response rate?
• Is someone responsible for reporting a work accident to the SGK within three working days?

In our workforce management system the emergency button sits in the top bar of the manager and employee panels and is not tied to any module: it is held for 2.5 seconds, a type is chosen and confirmed; everyone gets a full-screen alert with sound and a push notification, management sees the safety headcount in real time, only management can start a drill, and the first button is “Call 112”. More: features on in every company.

This guide is for information only and is not legal or payroll advice. In a specific dispute consult a lawyer; your collective agreement or employment contract may contain additional terms.