10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10772
The state of emergency in Georgia proposes no direct restrictions related to labour rights. However, prohibitions of economic activities under the Government Resolution emerge certain issues concerning labour relations. Resolution requires fulfillment of social distancing norms within the permitted workplaces. The Resolution sets remote workregime.
application/pdf
1561-8048
10772
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Zakaria Shvelidze
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Dismissal
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Georgia
Text.Serial.Journal
https://illej.unibo.it/
13
National Reports
2020-04-15
2020-04-14
2020-04-15
2020-09-15
ILLeJ
Zakaria Shvelidze
2020/04/15
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10772
Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Law
1561-8048
1S
Dismissal
en
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Georgia
https://illej.unibo.it/article/download/10772/11100
13
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Georgia                                                   Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Zakaria Shvelidze                                                                 Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
zakaria.shvelidze@tsu.ge                                            Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                                ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                 https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10772




                  COVID-19 and Labour Law: Georgia
                        Zakaria Shvelidze*

                                                  Abstract

     The state of emergency in Georgia proposes no direct restrictions related to labour rights.
     However, prohibitions of economic activities under the Government Resolution emerge certain
     issues concerning labour relations. Resolution requires fulfillment of social distancing norms
     within the permitted workplaces. The Resolution sets remote work regime.

     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law: Temporary disability; Remote work; Workplace social
     distancing; Suspension of employment relationship; Dismissal.



 1. General framework.

    On 26 February 2020, the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Georgia. The
 Government of Georgia then gradually introduced certain restrictions such as travel bans
 from high-risk countries, closing of the schools and restrictions of public gatherings. On 21
 March 2020, the state of emergency was declared throughout the whole territory of
 Georgia. According to a Decree of the President of Georgia, certain constitutional rights
 and freedoms were restricted. No specific restriction was defined with regard to labour
 rights or employment relations1. However, the President Decree defined authority of the
 Government of Georgia to introduce restrictions related to various constitutional rights
 affecting employment relations.
    On the basis of the President Decree, on 23 March 2020, the Government of Georgia
 issued Resolution No. 181 on the Approval of Measures to be Implemented in connection
 with the Prevention of the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Georgia
 (hereinafter the Resolution). The Resolution introduced curfew regime whereby from 31
 March 2020, movement of people by foot or by transport is prohibited from 21:00 till
 06:00. Assembly of more than 3 natural persons is prohibited in any indoor or outdoor
 area, except for spaces used by individuals for residential purposes. For the duration of the
 state of emergency, the Resolution suspends any economic activities in the country, except
 for essential services such as health care; postal service; retail sale of food and feed;
 activities related to mills, bakeries, milk processing, production; activities related to
 electricity, natural/liquefied gas, water, petrol supply; telecommunication; commercial


 *
   PhD, Invited Lecturer of Labour Law, Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Law.
 1 According to the Constitution of Georgia, during a state of emergency, the President of Georgia shall have
 the right to restrict by decree various rights, including labour rights.
Zakaria Shvelidze                                                                 Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                 Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                    Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                      Section: National Reports




banks; delivery services of meals, food, medical and pharmaceutical products, etc2. The
Resolution involves further restrictions such as suspension of air, land and sea transport
services for transportation of passengers, intercity municipal transportation of passengers,
movement by public transport, including metro. The Resolution bans movement of more
than 3 persons (including drivers) by a vehicle.


2. Status of the infected employees, employees under quarantine/isolation.

   Individuals tested positive for Covid-19 have to undergo medical treatment and if
employed, during that period his/her employment relations are considered suspended. It is
the general rule under the Labour Code of Georgia that temporary disability3 of an
employee suspends employment relations and during that period employer shall fully pay
remuneration to employee. Beginning from the first confirmed case of Covid-19, the
Government took the approach identifying and following each and every contact of Covid-
19 infected patients and they were also required to stay in quarantine and isolation,
including isolation in non-medical institution or their individual apartments4. Respectively,
on 4 March 2020, amendments were introduced to the orders of the Ministry of Internally
Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of
Georgia (hereinafter the Ministry), whereby employees who are requested to stay in
quarantine and isolation, they will be also covered under the temporary disability regime
and employers shall fully pay remuneration to them.


3. Safety and health.

   In order to prevent the risk of infection among workers, the Resolution proposes the
concept of workplace social distancing and remote work.
   The Ministry issued workplace safety recommendations for various sectors5 and work
process in all permitted economic activities shall be carried out in accordance with those
recommendations. Moreover, within the economic activities which had not been
suspended, the Resolution allows gathering of more than 3 natural persons provided that a
social distance of not less than 2 metres is observed in any work area. Technical and


2 The Resolution further approves the list of permitted economic activities and the list of business entities
(carrying out such economic activities) whose operation is not restricted. For example, the Resolution permits
construction works only by companies approved by the Government of Georgia.
3 According to the Labour Code, temporary disability means the disability period not exceeding 40

consecutive calendar days, or the total disability period not exceeding 60 calendar days in six months.
4 According to the Decree of the President of Georgia, the relevant state organs were authorised to transfer a

person by force to a designated place for the violation of isolation or quarantine rules.
5 The Ministry adopted general recommendations for all sectors of economic activities, but there are also

specific recommendations for example for construction sector, for service sectors (banks, pharmacies and
retails), transport sector, mining sector.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10772                                                                   2
Zakaria Shvelidze                                                                    Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                    Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                       Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                         Section: National Reports




Construction Supervision Agency and the Labour Conditions Inspection Department were
authorized to execute joint control and inspection over workplace compliance with the
social distancing requirement and Ministry’s recommendations.
   The Resolution permits execution of any economic activity which may be carried out
remotely, specifically working from home. In an exceptional – critical situation, taking into
account the specific nature of a permitted activity, work may be performed remotely also
from the workplace (office) involving only maximum of 5 persons.


4. The issue of termination or suspension of the employment and absence of
unemployment social security system

    Shut down of the economy and interruption of business operations greatly affect state
of employment in the country. After a priority concern of citizens’ health, the core problem
what population will face is unemployment and loss of earnings. Employers banned from
functioning have an option to terminate employment contract with immediate effect based
on economic reasons or technological or structural changes. For that purposes employer
shall notify employee(s) three days in advance and employees should be given two months’
severance pay. Instead of termination, mutual suspension of the employment relations is
seen by businesses as an alternative solution6. Unlike to dismissed employees, suspended
employees are not entitled to receive salary or severance from the employer7, even though
they are still considered as “employed”: When their employer re-commences operations,
they will automatically receive back their jobs.
    Vulnerable workers - self-employed, domestic workers, workers in informal sector - are
also affected by the state of emergency restrictions. According to the Resolution, delivery
services of meals, food, medical or pharmaceutical products is excluded from suspension
of economic activities and therefore, delivery service platform work is the field where
economic effects could be less harmful.
    2 billion Georgia laris were assigned from the budget and the government introduced
some measures to mitigate negative economic impacts of Covid-19. This includes social
initiatives8 as well as financial measures aimed to support, stimulate the economy and



6 The given publication does not address grounds, their legal aspects and validity for suspension of
employment relations due to suspension of the economic activities.
7 According to the Labour Code, in case of suspension of the employment relations, employees receive

salaries only the in the following situations: call to military reserve service; temporary disability; paid leave;
maternity leave.
8 The government will fully fund the utility payments of citizens for electricity, gas, cleaning and water. The

program applies citizens who consume less than 200 kilowatts of electricity per month and less than 200 m3
of natural gas per month for the duration of three months - March, April, and May. The Government will
subsidy prices for specific food products (rice, buckwheat, pasta, oil, flour, wheat, milk powder, sugar and
beans). Commercial banks also introduced moratorium for borrowers to deter their loan repayment also for
next three months.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10772                                                                      3
Zakaria Shvelidze                                                                  Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                  Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                     Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                       Section: National Reports




preserve jobs9. Georgian legislation does not include social security measures related to
unemployment. Legislation is silent on unemployment benefits or assistance to compensate
for the loss of earnings for workers (whether suspended or terminated). The Government
announced that in the nearest future they will propose measures primarily focused on
provision of financial support to workers who lost their jobs10. It is important that such
relief programs should cover not only dismissed employees but also suspended employees
as well as vulnerable workers. In the absence of employment registration and notification
system11, the issue emerges on the mechanism how the Government will identify
employees and workers who lost their jobs and/or earnings. The Government may analyse
the revenue service data to come up with the number of employees who stopped payment
of income taxes as long as they do not receive salaries12. This approach will reveal
information only on unemployment of dependent workers and data on self-employees and
informal sector who lost their jobs will be missing.
    Social partners were not consulted on the restrictions introduced regarding suspension
of economic activities and the counteracting measures so far taken by the government.
Considering the extraordinary situation of the state of emergency and lack of experiences
of social dialogue, it is not expected that the government would invite social partners
during discussions on the mechanisms against economic impact of Covid-19.




Copyright © 2020 Zakaria Shvelidze. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License

9 Most sensitive sectors such as hotels and restaurants, travel agencies will be exempted from paying property
and income taxes until November 2020. Tax incentives will apply to 18 000 employers and over 50 000
employees. The Government will double the volume of VAT refunds to companies with an aim of supplying
them with working capital and instead of initially planned 600 million Georgian laris, 1,200 million Georgian
laris will be refunded by the end of the year. Around 2,000 hotels with 4 to 50 rooms will receive bank loan
interest rate co-financing for 6 months from government. The Government will augment its support towards
capital expenditure projects with an aim of providing additional economic incentives and the capital
expenditures in the state budget for 2020 will be increased by 300 million Georgian laris. The municipal
government of Tbilisi exempted open cafes from paying rents in 2020. SMEs are exempted from paying rents
for 3 months. See Galt&Taggart report on “COVID-19 and its Impact on Georgian Economy”,
<https://galtandtaggart.com/upload/reports/10039.pdf>, (accessed 10 April 2020).
10 Announcement of the deputy Prime Minster of Georgia, 1 April 2020. Available in Georgian only

<https://www.interpressnews.ge/ka/article/593051-maia-ckitishvili-imedi-gvakvs-rom-biznesi-mtavrobis-
mxardacheris-shedegad-shezlebs-arc-erti-mokalake-ar-datovos-samsaxuris-gareshe-tumca-tu-es-mainc-
moxda-mokalakeebs-garkveul-daxmarebas-shevtavazebt>, (accessed 10 April 2020).
11 According to the Labour Code, employers are obliged to notify the authorities (the Ministry) only in case of

collective redundancy defined as dismissal of minimum 100 employees during 15 calendar days, regardless of
the size of an enterprise.
12 Announcement of the deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, 3 April 2020. Available in Georgian only

https://www.interpressnews.ge/ka/article/593458-maia-ckitishvili-ganmartavs-rogor-daadgens-mtavroba-im-
adamianebis-raodenobas-vinc-sagangebo-mdgomareobis-pirobebshi-samsaxuri-dakarga (accessed 10 April
2020).

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10772                                                                    4
