(Social Services Agency)
Almost all of Georgia’s social workers are set to go on strike on 1 March, over what they say are poor working conditions and a lack of resources. [Read more…]
(Anahit Danielyan / OC Media)
When confronted with unfair dismissal or other violations of their labour rights, people in Nagorno-Karabakh face an uphill battle through the courts to gain restitution. But for some, the judicial hoops or fears of being left unemployed are simply too much, and justice remains out of reach.
Lera Alkhasova — ex-lawyer of liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident (yuga.ru)
The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has denied compensation for ‘psychological damages’ to emergency workers from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster because they ‘filed their application too late’. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a group of ‘Chernobyl Liquidators’ — civilian and military personnel who worked to contain the effects of the 1986 disaster — were entitled to compensation previously withheld from them. [Read more…]
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…]
Workers protesting against the closure of the Agara sugar factory on 20 April (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
A sugar factory in Agara, a town west of Tbilisi, is set to reopen after dozens of workers marched 110 kilometres to Tbilisi in protest its closure. An agreement to renovate the factory and reopen it on 1 June was announced on Wednesday, several days after the march. [Read more…]
(Dato Parulava /OC Media)
Several dozen workers from a sugar factory in the town of Agara, west of Tbilisi, have marched 110 kilometres to the capital and are demonstrating outside the Government Chancellery building. The factory suspended operations in November after the company claimed their sugar was no longer competitive amidst growing imports from Europe. [Read more…]
A mine in Tkibuli (Radio Tavisupleba)
Six miners died and three more were injured on Thursday morning in a coal shaft collapse in Tkibuli, in central Georgia. Four miners were killed in the same mine last May, causing outrage. [Read more…]
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…]
Tevdore Natsabidze, a labourer at the railway tunnel construction site, walks to work. Tevdore was one of roughly fifty striking employees accusing the construction company of violating labour safety rules (Luka Pertaia /OC Media)
Railway construction in central Georgia is a key part of ambitious plans to modernise Georgia’s infrastructure. Despite warnings from trade unions and official inspectors, life for the workers remains a ‘living hell’.
Worker in Chiatura (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
Over 1,300 workers have been killed or injured in occupational accidents in Georgia over the past eight years, according to official statistics. [Read more…]
