Labor Code of Georgia

Part I. General Provisions

Chapter I. Preamble

Article1. Law Applicability

1. The present Code regulates employment and employment-associated relations throughout the territory of Georgia, unless they are otherwise regulated by other special law or by the international treaties of Georgia.
2. Issues related with the employment relations, not regulated by the present Code or other special law, are regulated by the norms of the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia.

Article 2. Employment Relations

1. Employment relation means performance of paid labor by the employee to the employer in terms of organized labor arrangement.
2. Employment relations are established on the basis of the agreement reached between the parties as a result of voluntary expression of goodwill and equitability.
3. Any type of discrimination due to race, color, ethnic and social category, nationality, origin, property and position, residence, age, gender, sexual orientation, limited capability, membership of religious or any other union, family conditions, political or other opinions are prohibited in employment relations;
4. Direct or indirect oppression of a person, aimed at or causing creation of harassing, hostile, humiliating, dignity harming or insulting environment, or creation of such conditions which directly or indirectly impair his/her state compared with other persons being in the analogous conditions shall be construed as discrimination;
5. The necessity of making distinction between the people judging  from the essence, specifications of the employment or the conditions of its performance, which serves to achievement of legitimate goal and is the reasonable and necessary way of its achievement shall not be deemed as discrimination;
6. In the course of employment relations the parties should adhere to basic humans rights and freedoms as defined by Georgian legislation;

Labor Code of Georgia

Part I. General Provisions

Chapter I. Preamble

Article1. Law Applicability

1. The present Code regulates employment and employment-associated relations throughout the territory of Georgia, unless they are otherwise regulated by other special law or by the international treaties of Georgia.
2. Issues related with the employment relations, not regulated by the present Code or other special law, are regulated by the norms of the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia.

Article 2. Employment Relations

1. Employment relation means performance of paid labor by the employee to the employer in terms of organized labor arrangement.
2. Employment relations are established on the basis of the agreement reached between the parties as a result of voluntary expression of goodwill and equitability.
3. Any type of discrimination due to race, color, ethnic and social category, nationality, origin, property and position, residence, age, gender, sexual orientation, limited capability, membership of religious or any other union, family conditions, political or other opinions are prohibited in employment relations;
4. Direct or indirect oppression of a person, aimed at or causing creation of harassing, hostile, humiliating, dignity harming or insulting environment, or creation of such conditions which directly or indirectly impair his/her state compared with other persons being in the analogous conditions shall be construed as discrimination;
5. The necessity of making distinction between the people judging  from the essence, specifications of the employment or the conditions of its performance, which serves to achievement of legitimate goal and is the reasonable and necessary way of its achievement shall not be deemed as discrimination;
6. In the course of employment relations the parties should adhere to basic humans rights and freedoms as defined by Georgian legislation;

Article 3. Entities of Employment Relations

1. Entities of employment relations may be: the employer, the employee and the union of employees (trades union);
2. Employer is a physical or legal entity, or the union of persons, for whom the labor is performed on the basis of the employment agreement;
3. Employee is a physical entity, who performs certain labor for the employer on the basis of the employment agreement;
4. Entities of collective employment relations are: union of employees (trades union) and the employer.

Part II. Individual Employment Relations

Chapter II. Origin of Employment Relations

Article 4. Minimal age for employment eligibility and origin of employment capability

1. Employment capability of a physical person is constituted from 16 years.
2. Employment capability of a person under 16 years is effective under the consent of the authorized representative or the agency assuming guardianship provided that the employment relations do not contradict the interests of the under age person, do not impair his/her moral, physical and mental development and do not preclude the right and ability to get elementary and base education. The consent of the authorized representative or the agency assuming guardianship  remains in force towards further employment relations of the similar nature;
3. Employment agreement of persons under 14 years can be concluded only in the sphere of sports, arts and culture, also for performance of advertisement services;
4. Employment agreement shall not be concluded with the under age person, for performance of labor associated with gambling, night entertainment establishments, production, transit and sale of erotic and pornographic products, pharmacy and toxic substances.
5. Employment agreement shall not be concluded with the under aged person, also pregnant or breast-feeding females to perform hard, hazardous and dangerous labor.

Article  5. Pre-Contractual Relations and Exchange of Information Prior to Execution of the Agreement

1. Employer is authorized to obtain information about the candidate which is needed for making decision on hiring such person;
2. The candidate must notify the employer on any circumstances, which may preclude him/her from performance of labor or jeopardize the interests of the employer or a third person;
3. The employer is authorized to check the validity of the information produced by the candidate;
4. The information obtained by the employer about the candidate and the information provided by the candidate must not be available to other persons without consent of the candidate, unless otherwise envisaged by the legislation;
5. The candidate is entitled to request documents submitted by him/her if the employer has not concluded a labor agreement;
6. The candidate is entitled to obtain exhaustive information on job-related assignments, employment conditions, his/her legal standing in terms of employment relations and labor compensation;
7. Pre-contractual relation with the candidate shall be deemed completed when the parties enter into the agreement or upon delivery of the rejection notice to the candidate;
8. The employer is not required to substantiate his/her decision for not recruiting the applicant;

Article 6. Execution of the Employment Agreement

1. The employment agreement is executed in writing or verbally, for definite, indefinite term or for the period of employment duration;

2. Written employment agreement is executed in a language understandable to the parties. Written employment agreement may be executed in several languages. If written employment agreement is executed in several languages, it should contain the acknowledgement of the prevailing language in case of divergence between the provisions of the agreement; 
3. Application of a person and the document issued by the employer on its basis, which certifies the intention of the employer to hire a person, has the same power as execution of the employment agreement;
4. The employer must issue a certificate of employment upon request of the employee which includes data on performed labor, labor compensation, duration of the employment agreement;
5. Employment agreement may state that the operations manual represents the part of the agreement. In such case the employer must introduce the operations manual to the employee if such exists prior to execution of the employment agreement, and any further amendments thereon;
6. If several employment agreements are concluded with the employee which merely complement and do not fully substitute each other, all such agreements remain in force and are construed as a singular employment agreement;
7. Prior employment agreement remains in force to the extent its provisions are not amended by the subsequent agreement;
8. In case of presence of several employment agreements with the employee under the same terms, the latest agreement shall prevail.

Article 7. Origin of Employment Relations

Employment relations arise as of the moment the employee commences performance of the labor, unless otherwise determined by the employment agreement;

Article 8. Limitation of Part-time Employment Agreements

1. Part time employment agreement can be concluded with a person, who can perform other paid labor for the spare time after the primary occupation.
2. Right of the employee to accept other labor may be limited by the employment agreement, if such performance might hinder performance of obligations associated with his/her primary occupation and/or if a person for whom such part-time labor has to be performed, is a competitor to the primary employer;

Article 9. Probation Period

1. For the purpose to identify expediency of the candidate with the employment, upon agreement of the parties, employment agreement for the probation period can be concluded with the candidate only once, for no longer than six months. Employment agreement for the probation period may be made only in writing, in other cases such agreement shall be deemed as the employment agreement;
2. Employer is authorized to conclude an employment agreement with the candidate at any time during the probation period or terminate an employment agreement for the probation period;
3. In case of termination of the employment agreement for the probation period, norm addressed in part 3, Article 38 of the present Code does not apply, unless otherwise addressed by the employment agreement for the probation period. In case of termination of the employment agreement of the probation period, labor of the employee shall be compensated commensurate with the actually worked hours;

Chapter III. Performance

Article 10. Commitment on Personal Performance of Labor

Employee must personally perform his/her assignments. The parties may agree to engage the third person for certain period of time to perform certain service.

Article 11. The right of the employer to give instructions, insubstantial amendments of the employment agreement and the amendments

1. The employer is entitled to give instruction to the employee to specify particular conditions of the performance of labor under the employment agreement, which do not have substantial effect on the agreement terms;
2. Amendments of the labor conditions are possible only upon agreement of the parties;
3. Unless otherwise envisaged by the employment agreement, insubstantial amendments of the employment agreement shall be considered as follows:

1. change of the referred job location of the employee by the employer, if it takes an employee not more than thee hours per day to get to the new work place from his/her residence and back, and at the same time does not incur unreasonable costs;
2. change of the check in and out times of the employment for not more than 90 minutes;
3. amendment, which is conditioned by amendments to the legislation and makes exact performance of the agreement impossible, without changing its essence;

4. Change of two conditions at the same time as envisaged in part 3 of the present Article is construed as modification of the employment agreement terms;

Article 12. Business Trip

1. Business trip is a temporary change of the business location of the employee by the employer, deriving from the interests of the job;
2. Sending an employee to the business trip by the employer is not considered as change of the employment conditions if the business trip period does not exceed 45 calendar days per annum;
3. The case when the employer exceeds the term addressed in clause 2 of the present Article shall be deemed as modification of the employment agreement terms;
4. The employer must fully compensate the expenses of the employee associated with the business trip;
5. Norms envisaged by the present Article shall be applied unless otherwise addressed by the employment agreement;

Article 13. Operations Manual

1. The employer is authorized to introduce operations manual;
2. Operations manual represents a written document, which may define:

1. duration of the business week, the daily schedule, shifts;
2. duration of breaks;
3. time and place of remuneration payment;
4. length and rule of authorizing a paid leave; 
5. unpaid leave and the rule of its authorization;
6. rules for complying with labour conditions;
7. type and the procedure for work-related incentives and responsibilities;
8. rule on reviewing applications/claims.

3. Taking into account the specific nature of the employment, the employer may incorporate special regulations in the operations manual.

Chapter IV. Performance, Break and Leave Times

Article 14. Duration of the Business Day

1. Unless otherwise addressed by the employment agreement, duration of the business day determined by the employer during which the employee performs assignments should not exceed forty one hours a week. Break and leave is not included in the work time.
2. Duration of leave between work days (shifts) should not be less than 12 hours.

Article 15. Fixed Work Hours for Shifts

Working in shifts or rotation from one shift into other is determined by the rotation schedule, which is approved by the employer taking into consideration the specific nature of the employment. Employee should be notified on changes in the rotation schedule in ten days advance, if it is not impossible due to extreme industrial necessity;  

Article 16. Rule on Calculation of the Totally Worked Hours

Taking into account the conditions of the employment, when it is impossible to observe daily or weekly work time schedule, it is allowed to introduce the rule on calculation of totally worked hours;

Article 17. Overtime Labor

1. The employee must perform overtime labor:

1. to avoid natural disasters an or for liquidation of its results – without compensation;
2. to prevent industrial accident and/or liquidate its results – with relevant remuneration.

2. It is prohibited to employ the pregnant or a female who recently gave birth, person with limited capabilities for overtime work without consent of such person;
3. Performance of the employee for the time duration of which exceeds the work hours addressed in the employment agreement is deemed as overtime work; If the employment agreement does not specify the business work hours, performance exceeding forty one hours a week or the work time not exceeding forty one hours specified by the employer consistent with clause 1of Article 14 of the present code shall be considered as overtime work;
4. Terms of the overtime labor are defined upon consent of the parties.

Article 18. Limitation of the Night hour work

Employment of an under aged person, pregnant or newly baby-born or breast-feeding female in evening hours (from 22:00 p.m. till 6:00 a.m.) and employment of a person taking care of a child under three years or with limited capabilities without his/her consent is prohibited;

Article 19. Additional break for breast feeding females

1. Employee being a breast feeding female feeding an infant under twelve months, based on her request shall be given additional break hours not less than one hour per day;
2. break taken for feeding an infant is included in the regular work hours and is not compensated.

Article 20. Holydays

1. Holidays include:

1. January 1, 2 – new year celebration;
2. January 7 – Christmas;
3. January 19 - Epiphany;
4. March 3 – mother’s day
5. April 9 – the day of adoption of the act on restoration of the state independence of Georgia, memorial day of the deceased for the homeland, national integrity and civil concord;
6. Easter days – red Friday, great Saturday, Easter; memorial day of the deceased – first Monday after the Easter (dates are transitional);
7. May 9 – the victory day over fascism;
8. May 12 – Saint Andrea the First memorial day;
9. May 26 – independence day of Georgia;
10. August 28 – St. Mary’s day;
11. October 14 – Mtskhetoba (Svetitskovloba, the holyday of life-giving pillar);  
12. November 23 – St. George’s day;

2. Employee is entitled to request other holydays instead of those provided by the present Code what should be defined by the employment agreement;
3. Performance of the employee during the days addressed in clause 1 of this Article shall be deemed as overtime labor and its terms shall be agreed by the parties.

Chapter V. Leave

Article 21. Length of the Leave

1. Employee is authorized to take paid leave – not less than 24 business days per annum;
2. Employee is entitled to take unpaid leave – not less than 15 calendar days per annum;
3. Employment agreement may define terms and conditions different from those addressed in the present Article, which should not affect the conditions of employee.

Article 22. Vacation Notice

1. Employee is entitled to request leave after eleven months of occupation; Upon agreement of the parties, the employee may take a leave prior to expiration of the set date;
2. After the second year of employment, upon agreement of the parties, the employee may take a leave at any time of the year;
3. Upon agreement of the parties, leave can be taken in portions;
4. Period of temporary incapability, leave for pregnancy, childbirth and child care, leave for the purpose of newborn adoption and additional leave  for childcare are not included in the vacation;
5. Unless otherwise envisaged by the employment agreement, employer is entitled to determine the sequence of paid leaves for the employees during year.

Article 23. Obligation to Notify the Employer on Unpaid Leave

By the time of taking unpaid leave employee must in two weeks advance notify employer on such, except for the case when notification is not possible due to urgent health or family conditions.

Article 24. Origin of the Right to Request Leave

1. Term for calculating the origin of the right of requesting a leave includes work hours actually worked by the employee, also period of coercive suspension caused for the reason of the employer;
2.  Term for calculating the origin of the right of requesting a leave does not include the period of absence of the employee for inexcusable reasons or the period of unpaid leave for more than seven business days;

Article 25. Exceptional Occasions of Rescheduling Paid Leave

1. If giving paid leave to the employee during the current year may negatively affect the normal development of activities, upon consent of the employee, it is allowed to defer leave for the next year. Delay of a paid leave of an underage person for the following year is prohibited.
2. Delay of the paid leave for two years in succession is prohibited.

Article 26. Leave Reimbursement

Leave reimbursement for the employee is calculated based on the average compensation of three months prior to leave. If the time between the date of commencement of employment of the employee and the last leave taken is less than three months – based on average compensation of the worked months, in case of monthly fixed rate of compensation – according to the compensation of the last month.

Chapter VI. Leave for the Reason of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Childcare, Leave for adoption of the newborn and additional leave for childcare

Article 27. Leave for the reason of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare

1. Employee is entitled to request a leave for the reason of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare in the range of four hundred and seventy seven calendar days;
2. One hundred and twenty six calendar days are payable from the leave taken for the reason of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, in case of complicated childbirth or delivery of twins – one hundred and forty calendar days;
3. Employee, at own discretion may schedule the leave envisaged by clause 2 of the present Article for the pregnancy and post childbirth periods;

Article 28. Leave for the Reason of Adoption of the Newborn

Employee, adopting a newborn age of which is below twelve months, upon his/her request, is entitled to take a leave for the reason of adoption of the newborn – for three hundred and sixty five calendar days after the birth of a child. Out of this leave, seventy calendar days are paid.

Article 29. Compensation of the Leave taken for the reason of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare also for adoption of the newborn

Leaves taken for the reason of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare also for adoption of the newborn are compensated from the state budget, according to the rule prescribed by the legislation. Employer and employee may agree on additional compensation.

Article 30. Additional Leave for Childcare

1. Employee, upon his/her request is entitled to take not less than two weeks in a year in succession or in portions an unpaid leave for childcare for the period twelve months before the child turns five.
2. Additional vacation for the reason of childcare may be given to any person who actually takes care of a child.

Chapter VII. Labor Compensation

Article 31. Form and Amount of Labor Compensation, Time and Place of Issuance

1. Form and amount of labor compensation are determined by the employment agreement. Norms of the present agreement shall be applied only in occasion when the employment agreement does not state otherwise;
2. Employment compensation shall be issued once a month, at the workplace;
3. In case of delay of any compensation or settlement, the employer must pay 0.07 percent of the overdue amount for each delayed day.

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