(Tamuna Chkareuli /OC Media)
Despite a new labour safety bill, Georgia’s construction sites remain a deathtrap for workers. [Read more…]
In pictures | Georgia’s deadly construction sites
Seven arrested in Georgia for knowingly endangering miners
Deputy Interior Minister Natia Mezvrishvili briefing about the arrests / Footage of the detention of suspects (/MIA, via Imedi TV’s Kronika)
On Monday, the Georgian Interior Ministry said it arrested seven individuals for breaking safety protocols during mining operations. Six of the charges were filed within the investigation into the 5 April coal shaft collapse in Tkibuli, in central Georgia, that killed six miners and injured three.
No jobs in Abkhazia’s Gali District
In the market in Gali, the vendors are ethnic Georgians, however the owners of their counters are Abkhaz, according to locals. (Nino Gogua /OC Media)
Jobs are hard to come by in Abkhazia’s eastern Gali District, according to the ethnic Georgians who predominantly make up the district’s population. They say that nepotism and discrimination, both direct and indirect, have made unemployment rife. Some go to Sukhumi to the city’s highly unsafe construction sites, while others are leaving for greener pastures.
Miners protest to save Tkibuli coal mine
Protest at Mindeli mine shaft on Tuesday (Iberia TV)
A small group of miners gathered on Tuesday in front of the Mindeli mine shaft in the central Georgian town of Tkibuli demanding the administration of the company that owns the mine step down but insisting that operations should continue. Four died and six more were injured in an explosion in the mine on Monday. [Read more…]
Miners demand ‘temporary halt’ to coal mining in Tkibuli
Protest in Tkibuli on 11 April (newposts.ge)
A group of coal miners from Tkibuli have demanded that Saknakhshiri GIG, the company that owns the mines, temporarily shut down operations in order to improve safety conditions. [Read more…]
Miners demonstrate in Chiatura for ‘dignified working conditions’
Protest in Chiatura (Sopho Aptsiauri /Liberali)
Dozens of miners gathered in Chiatura, an industrial town in central Georgia, on Thursday in a demonstration organised by the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation’s youth wing, demanding ‘dignified working conditions’ for miners. They were asking for higher pay, collective contracts, and safe working conditions from Georgian Manganese, the company that owns the manganese mines in the town. If their demands are not met, they say they will hold a bigger demonstration. [Read more…]
Miner dies in Chiatura tunnel collapse
(GTUC)
A worker died in a mine in Chiatura, an industrial town in central Georgia, on Monday, after a tunnel collapse. [Read more…]
Georgia’s parliament adopts labour safety law
Rally calling for stricter labour rally, Tbilisi, February 2018 (Luka Pertaia /OC Media)
Georgia’s parliament has adopted a bill on labour safety in its third and final reading after facing pressure from labour rights groups. All 88 MPs present voted in favour of the bill, in a plenary session on 7 March.
Railway construction workers on strike in central Georgia
(gtuc.ge)
Dozens of railway construction workers have gone on strike in central Georgia demanding better labour conditions. According to the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC), they are protesting ‘severe violations’ of the labour code, and an unsafe work environment. [Read more…]
Georgian Parliament to discuss minimum wage in 2018
Georgian Parliament (wikimedia.org)
Georgia’s Parliament plans to discuss determining a minimum wage in the 2018 autumn parliamentary session. The Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee’s 2017–2018 Action Plan pledges to draft a labour legislation bill to determine a minimum wage, which is absent from the current Labour Code.
