Assembly with “Empty Saucepans” in front of the Parliament

Eka Kevanishvili, Radio “Liberty”

On January 26, Union of Unemployed People held an Assembly of Empty Saucepans in front of the Parliament of Georgia. Group of people gathered near the legislative body to request the MPs to adopt a law on the protection of unemployed people’s rights.

The organizers of the assembly handed a petition to the Chair of the Parliament in the chancellery of the Parliament and said they will continue a noisy protest of empty saucepans until somebody pays attention to their problem in the Parliament. During the assembly, nobody responded to their protest from the legislative body.

The noise of empty saucepans hardly reached the addressees of the demonstrators’ petition – Davit Bakradze and MP Pavle Kublashvili. During the assembly of the Union of Unemployed, the chair of the parliament and head of legal committee of the parliament were not in the parliament building. Another demonstration with the same requests was held in front of the parliament in autumn, 2011. The Union of Unemployed People is waiting for the reply to their petition since October 6, 2011.

The head of the organization Tamar Yovashvili said their first petition remained without attention. “We held similar assembly on November 17 too and the process will continue until they respond to us. We drafted a law on the protection of unemployed people and we would like the parliament to discuss it. We know that Pavle Kublashvili was put in charge of our issue. Since then, we have been trying to get in touch with them but in vain.”

With empty saucepans and iron spoons, the demonstrators protested the general conditions of majority population of Georgia who are unemployed; all of them have different reasons for being sacked from job but the time and period of their dismissal almost coincide with each other – during the first years after the Rose Revolution. “I have been unemployed since Sakakashvili’s government came in office. I worked in the sanitary inspection. They abolished the inspection – Saakashvili alleged it was corruptive institution: “I am in the opposition of this government and nobody employs me due to my political views. Nobody wants to hear alternative opinion and how can we speak about democracy…”

Tamar Yovashvili said the Union of Unemployed People has its own vision how to resolve the problem. They request meeting with the Chairman of the Parliament for this purpose. “After the Labor Exchange was closed in 2009, unemployed people have not been registered anywhere. No alternative institution was established instead. It is the first issue that shall be attended. Georgia is the only post-soviet country, which does not have allowance for unemployed people; furthermore, the rate of unemployed people is higher than 16 or 14% of the official statistics.”

Pavle Kublashvili thinks drafting of separate law is not necessary for the resolution of problems of unemployed people and the most effective tool to fight against it, is promotion of business, improvement of industrial environment and establishment of liberal tax policy in the country. 

As for the petition and request of the Union, Kublashvili confirmed in his interview with the Radio “Liberty” that he has seen the letter where the authors suggested them to start working on the draft-law. If anybody has more concrete proposals with regard to this problem, Kublashvili is ready to meet the concerned people. He said it not a problem for anybody at all.