First Workshop in Georgian Labor Law & Practical Challenges

The Ivane Javakhishvili State University this weekend organized a two-day conference on the legislative and practical challenges of the Georgian labor law. The main goal of the conference was to create an academic platform for discussion and to contribute to the dialogue on Georgian labor law and how to align it with European law.

“The format [of this conference] was interesting and saw significant participants in attendance, including judges, experts and so on,” said TSU rector Gia Sharvashidze. “Our aim is European and Euro Atlantic integration and, as such, a number of legal changes need to be made in all directions. We believe a dialogue is necessary between employers and employees, and labor relations need to be transparent to all parties. Changes were last made to the Georgian labor law in 2013, and the discussions are still ongoing”.

TSU’s initiative was shared by some of the largest employers in the country, the first of which was Georgian Post.

“This is an important process for the business sector. It’s about approximating the new labor law with that of Europe,” said Levan Chikvaidze, Georgian Post General Director. “Putting these laws into practice is no easy feat, but we need to find the middle line between business interests and employees. Georgian Post is fully in support of this”.

TBC Bank, ProCredit Bank, and Rompetrol Georgia also counted among the biggest supporters present at the conference.

Deputies of Georgian Parliament were also there. Member of majority party Georgian Dream, Beka Natsvlishvili, said, “even though the labor law was improved in 2013, and is already near to international standards, there still remain a number of issues [to solve]”.

“The principal problem is to execute and activate the labor law norms. This is the biggest challenge,” Natsvlishvili said. “Labor inspection, for example, which is the mechanism of execution, still works in pilot mode and is unable to control the problems in the sector. After the pilot regime, it will be able to detect only dangerous working conditions, no more. It simply isn’t enough.”

Khatia Kiria