GTUC presents the ITUC briefing on Georgia

On July 16, 2008, the President of the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, Irakli Petriashvili presented a ITUC publication : “Union View on Georgia” to the civil society groups/NGOs, embassies (USA, Israeli, Ukraine), international organizations. The event was attended by the deputy Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia (Government representatives were not invited). The magazine and other interesting materials were distributed to the guests.

The main issues of Mr. Petriashvili’s speech have been: facts of violation of workers and trade union rights, he also touched upon the social and employment policy of the government.

A power point presentation reflected problems of labor code, facts of violation labor rights and activities which was done by the GTUC over the past 6 months, including information about court actions, manifestations and protest statements.

Before the main part of presentation a short movie/video clip was shown, it was about the last protest actions and strikes organized by the Trade Unions.

Mr. Petriashvili criticized labor code, highlighted heavy labor conditions and stated that such trends would undermine sustainable development of Georgia.

Representatives of Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Public Defender’s Office supported GTUC’s activities. Deputy Public Defender offered to strengthen cooperation in the field legal support to those dismissed unfairly based on the paragraph d of the article 37 of the Labour code. She also proposed to share the database of the applications of the employees submitted to both Ombudsman’s office and GTUC.

Human Rights Coordinator of the US Embassy expressed her great interest towards given materials and positively assessed attempts that GTUC dedicates to protection of workers rights in the courts and the ILO.

The event was widely covered by the TV media, while two newspapers published brief notes.

Download the ITUC briefing here