On 29 September 2020 the Parliament of Georgia adopted amendments to the Labour Code and a new Law on the Labour Inspection Service (hereinafter the Labour Inspection Law). The approval of the new Labour Inspection Law was considered a major step forward in bringing Georgia’s labour legislation in line with the relevant international labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and directives of the European Union (EU).[1] By force of the new Labour Inspection Law, a full-fledged labour inspection service has been established under the Ministry of Labour. So, for the first time after the Rose Revolution of 2003 (when due to labour deregulatory policy of the then-Government any level of protection for worker rights was removed and the labour inspectorate system was fully abolished), the Labour Inspection Service was created with a full mandate to monitor and supervise workplace compliance not only with occupational safety and health norms, but also with labour rights and standards.
According to the ILO Approach to Strategic Compliance Planning for Labour Inspectorates, the traditional enforcement model (with reactive and routine inspections) is no longer sufficient to achieve effective and efficient enforcement and sustained compliance with labour legislation. The traditional labour inspection activities solely focuses on enforcement (and enforcement does not necessarily achieve compliance with labour laws). The strategic compliance model differs, since it mainly involves a proactive, targeted, and tailored approach aiming to identify diagnoses for causing non-compliance. Enforcement is one of the elements of the strategic compliance approach which should be combined with education, promotion, and communication activities with a more systematic endeavor from the labour inspection service. The idea of strategic compliance requires the involvement of different stakeholders – labour inspection and other governmental institutions, workers and their organizations, employers and their organizations, non-governmental organizations, media, and any other institution which can influence compliance.[2]
The Labour Inspection Law is based on the idea of the ILO’s strategic compliance approach.[3] As the main postulate of the Labour Inspection Law, the law explicitly defines that the purpose of the Labour Inspection Service is to ensure the effective application of the labour legislation. To achieve this purpose, the Labour Inspection Service shall, among others, use the following mechanisms:
a) the provision of information and/or consultations related to fulfilment of labour provisions, per employers’ request;
b) raising awareness and provision of information to society to promote respect for labour legislation in Georgia, through campaigns and other means considered effective;
c) receiving and resolving complaints related to alleged violations of labour legislation;
d) inspection;
e) developing recommendations for improving labour legislation and the application thereof.
Thus, in addition to its traditional role of workplace inspection, the law defines mechanisms of information and consultation, and this can be executed based on the initiative of the employers. As such, the law allows the employer to act proactively and seek for the inspection’s guidance with regard to making the company’s internal labour practice and policy compliant with the labour law norms. Furthermore, raising awareness about labour rights and requirements of the law among workers and employers is one of the central tasks for the functionality of the Labour Inspectorate itself. The Labour Inspection Law further specifies that in performing its activities, the Labour Inspection Service must use the powers under the law in a manner that ensures the greatest possible impact on the effective application of the labour legislation.
The Labour Inspection Law develops the concept of strategic compliance also through other mechanisms. One important mechanism to underline in this context is the authority of the inspectorate on sanctioning. In general, labour inspectors enjoy discretionary power to navigate within possible sanctions and the amount of fines to be imposed on each particular violation. The law includes three types of sanctions defined for violation of labour law regulations: a) warning; b) monetary fine; and c) workplace suspension. In case of labour law violations, labour inspectors may, at the first stage, issue a warning to address the material basis for violations, whereas a monetary fine is used at a later stage, especially when the warning has not achieved its goal. In some cases, depending on gravity of the violation, labour inspectors may directly issue a monetary fine against an employer. According to the Labour Code and the Law on Labour Safety (these are the normative bases in which the fines for labour law violations are defined), calculation of the amount of the fine depends on the size of the employer (income of the employer, annual turnover, value added tax payment). The financial state of the employer correlates with the infraction as the legislation defines the minimum and maximum amount of the fine for each violation. Only in exceptional situations, labour inspectors may exercise authority to suspend the working process, i.e. in case of trafficking, labour exploitation, child labour, or critical occupational safety and health non-compliance. The latter is defined as non-compliance creating a considerable threat to human life and/or health and which has to be redressed immediately. According to the Labour Inspection Law, labour inspectors enjoy discretionary power in deciding when and which administrative sanction (warning or fine) must be applied, and, in the case of a fine, the amount of the fine to be imposed. The law further states that the administrative sanction shall be proportional to the violation. The rationale here is that while issuing sanctions against the employer, the labour inspectorate should ensure the greatest possible impact on the effective application of the labour legislation.
As regards the inclusiveness of different stakeholders within the inspection system, under the Labour Inspection Law, a multi-party advisory council is created. It consists of 7 members: two business representatives; two workers representatives; two members of parliament; and a representative of the public defender’s office. The advisory council is a consultative body advising the chief labour inspector (head of the Labour Inspection Service) on strategy, functioning, and activities of the labour inspection service.
As described above, the cornerstone for the new labour inspection system of Georgia is that the inspectorate should use all means at its disposal (advisory services, technical advice, training, enforcement action, coordination with other compliance bodies, etc.) to improve the application of labour legislation in practice and ensure workplace compliance with the labour norms.
Courtesy of: Zakaria Shvelidze, Adjunct Professor,Tbilisi State University.
[1] Georgia’s Parliament adopts historic labour law reform package,https://www.ilo.org/moscow/news/WCMS_758336/lang–en/index.htm [Last access: 10.11.21].
[2] ILO Approach to Strategic Compliance Planning for Labour Inspectorates, Brief 2, December 2017, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_dialogue/—lab_admin/documents/publication/wcms_606471.pdf.
[3] Explanatory Note to the Law on Labour Inspection Service.