Georgia, EPSU Collective Bargaining News

Continuing actions from last year, members of the HSCMTU health workers’ union organised a demonstration on 17 January to raise concerns about low pay and changes to working conditions. The workers then took their protest inside the emergency services head office with several remaining in the building overnight to highlight the strength of feeling about their situation. Changes to rules on shift work mean that workers can’t work the extra hours they need to make ends meet and the ending of a contract to disinfect vehicles has left staff to do this work, so extra duties without additional pay

After several weeks of conflict, rallies and the threat of strike action, the HSMCTU health union, with the support of the GTUC confederation, secured an agreement from the Ministry of Health that it would not introduce a 12-hour work schedule for paramedics. The Ministry also agreed to remunerate employees’ overtime work and to have further meetings with the union to discuss how to increase salaries. The dispute had arisen following the Ministry’s decision to remove a wage supplement that had been introduced during the Covid pandemic and its plan to introduce a 12-hour work schedule

After two days of rallies and protests by waste workers, Tbilisi city council agreed to increase the salaries of employees of the Tbilservice waste management company from January 2022 and to solve a range of other issues by the end of August. The trade union of services, banks and utilities negotiated a number of measures relating to the inviolability of the protesters; cancellation of planned changes to work schedules; granting of employee insurance from 1 January 2022; additional paid leave to 24 working days; update of special clothes provision; and upgrading of vehicles.

The Georgian Trade Union Confederation has welcomed the government's ratification of the International Labour Organisation convention on tripartite consultation. The GTUC says that it had been pushing for this for many years and it should now provide the basis to develop social dialogue in the country. However, unions there continue to face major challenges not least the failure of the government to re-establish an effective labour inspection regime. Some 460 workers have died and 796 have been injured since the labour inspectorate was abolished in 2006.

(December 2016) To coincide with a meeting of the EU-Georgia Association Council, trade unions have raised a wide range of concerns on social issues. In particular, unions want to see a much higher minimum wage set by law and with proper enforcement mechanisms. The current minimum wage is extremely low with no real labour inspectorate to ensure implementation.

The Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) has welcomed positive statements from the government about setting up a labour inspectorate but warns it will pull out of talks if the proposed agency is not given any real enforcement powers. Meanwhile, the GTUC has been critical of the new labour code's provisions on working time. The labour code sets a 40-hour working week but a 48-hour week for "special regimes". The problem is that the government has listed the sectors that may be covered by this category and the GTUC argues that this opens up virtually the whole of the economy to having a 48

EPSU-PSI LetterEPSU and PSI have written to the Labour Ministry and authorities in Tbilisi to protest about the employment and working conditions of firefighters. Firefighters have been mounting protests since 12 February and some have started a hunger strike. Among the firefighter demands are: dismissal of the Director of the Emergency and Urgent Services Agency; an end to persecution of elected union leaders and intimidation of union members; annulment of the termination of employment of the workers who have been fired on the basis of false accusations; and improvement of working conditions

Following general elections last year, the new government has taken some steps towards improving the labour code. The code had been changed in 2003 leaving it providing few protections for workers or trade unions. Unfortunately, the revised code still includes unreasonable restrictions on the right to strike, while working hours, maternity protection and compensation for overtime and night work are insufficiently regulated. The Georgian trade union movement was consulted over changes but some key amendments were withdrawn following lobbying by national and international employer organisations

The ITUC and ETUC have repeated their call on the European Commission to open a formal investigation into trade union rights in Georgia under the procedure linked to the Commission’s trade preference scheme. The Confederations originally wrote to Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht in June but he responded in August to say that the Commission was using its contacts with the Georgian authorities to raise the issue of trade union rights and that an investigation was not appropriate. Since then the AFL-CIO confederation in the USA has convinced authorities there to examine the situation in Georgia