On November 16, the Fair Labor Platform held a public event to discuss illegal dismissals of workers employed in the cultural sector.
The wave of unjustified dismissals of employees in the cultural field continues. Over the past year, a number of cultural institutions have undertaken systematic staff purges based on employees’ critical views and/or membership in a trade union.
The purges in museums, theaters and other institutions have been disguised as so-called “restructurings.” But the approach in each place has been strikingly similar: Opaque, unsubstantiated and wholly in violation of Georgian labor law.
The purpose of this discussion was to jointly present the cascade of mass labor rights violations from the perspective of culture workers, trade unions and organizations working on labor rights, and to discuss strategies to create a fair labor environment for cultural workers.
In the first part of the event, representatives of labor unions and civil society organizations discussed the legal dimension of the problem – i.e., the strategies they are using to fight systemic violations, such as court cases and collective disputes.
The second half of the discussion was devoted to hearing from culture workers and independent professional associations in the field of culture, who discussed current working conditions.
The following organizations participated in the discussion:
▪️ Open Society Foundations;
▪️ Social Justice Center;
▪️ Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA)
▪️ Fair Elections (ISFED)
▪️ Trade Union of Health and Services – “Solidarity Network”;
▪️ The Guild
▪️ Union of Science, Education and Culture
