The Labor Inspectorate will no longer conceal the names of employers in the inspection reports it provides to the public after the practice was challenged in court by the Social Justice Center.
“The Social Justice Center welcomes Labor Inspectorate’s decision to stop illegally withholding this information and hopes that the body will continue to provide public information and will refrain from groundless and unwarranted suppression of information in the future”, the Social Justice Center said in a statement, which was published on 7 September 2023. The Social Justice Center is one of 11 organizations that make up the Fair Labor Platform.
The Social Justice Center, in cooperation with the Fair Labor Platform, had filed a complaint in Tbilisi City Court over the practice on 5 July 2023. The filing came after the Inspectorate began redacting employer details in reports that the Platform obtained via freedom of information requests. This made it impossible to determine which violations were being found in which enterprise. The Platform uploads the reports to its Labor Rights Monitor, a public database of the Labor Inspectorate’s reports.
After the Social Justice Center filed the case, the labor inspection reversed its policy and began providing the Fair Labor Platform with the information it requested, without redacting employer details. The reversal came prior to the court taking any action on the case.
The Social Justice Center and Fair Labor Platform urge the Labor Inspection to continue providing information to all interested parties in accordance with the law.
