Dockers in Poti are on strike. One of their demands is to have written contracts, which is not required under Georgian law. (IPN.)

About 200 employees of the port of Poti are on strike, local media report. The workers refuse to carry on until the people making decisions at No 14 harbor speaks to them.

They demand improved working conditions, appropriate salary for the work they do and to have contracts.

Tuesday evening 45 employees at another harbor joined the strike. Port operations were interrupted due. Workers claim they were handed a letter from the director which says they are fired due to interruption. The letter says if workers on strike won’t go back to work, there will be sanctions against them defined by law.

The letter says the company is ready to review any issue within the regulations of business ethics and professional norms as long as the process won’t cause interruption of work.

Workers say no one spoke to them for these two days. They plan to continue striking until someone speaks to them.

Interpressnews quotes Joseph Crowley, director of Poti port, saying that most of the employees at the port are not on strike and continue working.

Georgia’s Labor Code allows an employer to fire an employee without any explanation any time. Workers on the other hand have few rights. The code doesn’t make it obligatory to sign long term contracts and allows having short-term or verbal contracts. The legislation does not properly regulate negotiations between employer and employee.

Georgian Dream, which won the parliamentary election on October 1, has promised to review the Labor Code, and possibly amend it.