Georgian workers demand better working conditions

A group of Georgian workers have gone on strike in protest of harsh working conditions and to reinstate redundant employees.

Workers from Kazreti gold and copper deposits and Chiatura Manganese Mine organised a rally in front of the Georgian Government’s Chancellery building today.

The protesters were joined by Georgian firemen and employees from the Rustavi Nitrogen Fertilizer Factory and Rustavi Metallurgical Plant in an attempt to show solidarity.

One of the rally organisers, Nino Lomjaria, said despite changes to the Labor Code, the Government was not able to control whether workers’ rights were protected or not.

"We demand from the Government a more efficient Labor Code and a more efficient control mechanism for it,” she said.

Tamar Kordzaia, a member of the Parliamentary majority, talked to the protesters today. She claimed Prime Minister Irakli Garibahsvili would adequately react to the workers’ problems once he returned from the United States, where he is paying an official visit.

Kordzaia said Garibahsvili led a three-sided Commission consisting of the Government, Employment and Unemployment Associations’ representatives. She believed the Commission would hold a meeting to find solutions to the workers’ problems after the PM’s return to Georiga.

Meanwhile workers began striking in Kazreti, in the Bolnisi municipality of Kvemo Kartli region, on February 14.

Since November 2013, workers have gone on strike sporadically in protest of harsh working conditions. The more recent and larger strikes were triggered by the mining company’s decision to lay off more than 180 workers in late January.

Today, the workers demand for better working conditions and for their dismissed co-workers to be reinstated.