by Emin Avundukluoğlu
ANKARA
Improved working conditions for miners are among 148 news laws passed by Turkish MPs in a "bag of bills" following a 99-day marathon debate in the Grand National Assembly.
The retirement age for mine workers will be reduced to 50 from 55 and their daily working hours lowered to six hours from eight under the new legislation approved on Wednesday.
They will also work a maximum of 36 hours a week.
Other articles allow a miner's wife or one of his children - or a brother or sister is he has neither - to be eligible to be employed in government posts.
The changes follow the deaths of 301 miners in the town of Soma in Manisa province in May, which many critics blamed on poor working conditions.
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