TBILISI, DFWatch — The new government in Georgia has started amending the country’s labor code, which has been criticized by local groups and the international community.

The parliamentary committee on health care and social issues initiated a draft amendment to the code Thursday.

One of the most criticized part of the labor code of 2006 is that employers are granted the right to fire an employee at any time for any reason without giving an explanation.

The new law being proposed by the Ivanishvili government takes into account the interests of the workers as well. A worker will be informed about a possible firing in advance.

If a person is not capable to work for a certain amount of days, an employer is allowed to fire him or her. The exact number of days will be raised from 30 to 60 days. This means that if a person is not capable to work for more than 60 days within a six month period, he may be fired.

According to the bill, if an employer wants to punish a worker for violating the contract, he will have to first give a reprimand or remark. If the violation continues for a year after the reprimand, then the employer may fire the worker. Under current legislation, an employer may fire an employee immediately.

If an employer decides to fire anemployee, under the amended code, he will be obliged to pay him no less than one month’s salary. An employer will be allowed to fire a worker if he or she interrupts the labor relations, but in this case the employer will inform the worker 30 days in advance and will pay one month’s salary.

Another important change in the code is that there will be a prohibition on firing a woman on maternity leave, which was allowed before and created problems for women.

When the previous government amended the labor code turning it into a very liberal law, their argument was that this would attract foreign investors. However, the government was criticized internationally for this step as the new law reduced the rights of workers to a minimum. The previous government’s opponents also claimed that having a liberal labor code was not enough to attracting foreign investments https://dfwatch.net/trade-unions-advise-new-georgian-government-52224.