Tbilisi Mayor: City Hall Cannot Increase Salaries of Metro Employees

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze says City Hall has no funds to increase the salaries of Tbilisi Metro employees, who plan to go on strike on June 3, if they do not get a raise in their salaries.

The Mayor explained that the average salary of metro workers is 1400-2000 GEL, and that the Mayor’s Office cannot afford to increase this even in the near future.

“It is impossible to increase their salaries when we have some workers employed in very responsible positions who get not more than 700-800 GEL,” he stated.

Kaladze says around 400,000 people use the metro every day and claims the ultimatum of the metro workers is unfair.

He added that if the workers go on strike, City Hall will do its best to avoid suspension of the underground transport.

Deputy-Mayor Irakli Khmaladze says City Hall would be happy if they could increase the salaries of the people.

“We appreciate the work of the metro employees: they are professionals and serve thousands of people every day, but the municipality has no funds to increase their salaries. This is the reality,” he told Georgia’s Public Broadcaster.

Khmaladze explained that first the economic situation in the country has to be improved in order to manage and increase the salaries of people employed in the public sector.

“At present, we really have no resources to increase the salaries of metro staff,” he reiterated, and expressed readiness to meet the metro workers once again.

The Deputy-Mayor says City Hall will file a lawsuit in court if the metro workers really go on strike.

On May 21, Tbilisi City Court made a decision which reads that metro workers may go on strike only during out-of-office hours.

The union of metro workers ‘Unity 2013’ says the decision of the court is the equivalent of a restriction of their right to express protest, as the strike itself means workers refusing to perform their duties as a form of protest.

This is the third time Tbilisi City Court has ruled against the metro workers, saying that a strike during working hours would paralyze traffic in the capital.

Union 2013 claims they will not obey the “unlawful” decision of the court and will strike on June 3.

The Chair of the trade union, Rati Kapanadze, says their strike will be legal, because it is their right as granted by the Constitution.

He says the workers suggested Tbilisi Transport Company gradually increase their salaries but the answer was no.

“We are going to appeal the decision of court, which restricts our right to strike in working hours. This decision is absolutely absurd and unlawful,” Kapanadze stated.

The collective dispute of Unity 2013 started in March 2016, with the workers asking for improved labor and safety conditions in Tbilisi Metro. After they failed to win the case at court, the metro workers announced a large-scale strike.

The Chair of Unity 2013 says in 2016 they reached an agreement with the Mayor’s Office and Tbilisi Transport Company regarding the salaries and improved working conditions, but noted that nothing has changed since then.

Georgia’s Public Defender Nino Lomjaria released a statement saying the decision of the Tbilisi City Court, by which the right of the employees of Tbilisi Metro (Unity 2013) to strike has been restricted, is “a harmful and dangerous precedent” for labor rights.

Lomjaria says that metro drivers planned a strike on May 3, but the strike was postponed for a maximum period of 30 days on the court’s decision. June 3 was announced as the new date of the strike, although this time, the court restricted the Metro drivers’ right to strike during working hours for an indefinite period of time.

“The Organic Law on the Labor Code of Georgia provides for a one-time postponement of strike only for a maximum period of 30 days. The Organic Law is a superior legal act and it also contains special norms related to striking,” the Ombudsman stated.

The Public Defender considers that the restriction of the right of Metro workers to strike for an indefinite period of time contradicts the law and violates the essence of the right to strike.

By Thea Morrison