Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori
Workers employed at the construction of the dam in the village of Nikozi in Gori district have been requesting the salary arrears from the contractor company. The workers met the representatives of the Company “Gola XXI, Ltd” located in Mitskevich Street # 25 in Tbilisi. Journalist of the regional newspaper “Kartlis Khma” (Voice of Kartli region) Giorgi Edisherashvili was video-recording the meeting. The representatives of the company locked the journalist in the room and erased all the materials from the camera.
The dam was being built in the village of Nikozi throughout one year. The workers were hired on the construction. The authority decided to build the dam after the Tskhinvali regime locked the Tiriponi and Saltvisi channel. The Georgian side tries to supply Georgian villages with the irrigation water.
Nevertheless, Georgian building companies left the workers without salaries. These people were deceived by the director of the “Gola XXI, Ltd” Gela Labadze. People said that Gela Labadze promised them to pay salaries but… “One year has passed and he disappeared. “Gola, Ltd” was one of the sub-contractor companies in the construction. The company “New Energy” had hired them for the implementation of the construction activities; the “New Energy” was responsible for the quality of the work and salary reimbursement of the workers.
Journalist Giorgi Edisherashvili accompanied the workers to the meeting in the office of the “Gola XXI, Ltd” in Mitskevich Street # 24 in Tbilisi. The representatives of the contractor company could not hide their aggression at the sight of the workers. The journalist recalled the details of the meeting.
Giorgi Edisherashvili: “Soso Tsertsvadze and Otar Giunashvili visited the office of the “Gola, Ltd” in Tbilisi to find out the situation about salary arrears. They requested the representatives of the company to pay the money. I was with them and tried to video-record the meeting. The employees of the company did not like my activities and took the workers into another room where they started speaking in a loud voice. I was ordered to erase the video-recording immediately. Later, they erased the materials themselves. The people at the office stated that they have nothing to do with the company “Gola” and they had no debt to the workers from Gori. They said the workers will come to their office and urge for employment soon. One of the employees showed me a notice on the wall “”Compass” and said that it was not “Gola, Ltd” but another company. I asked them if they had any connection with the “Gola, Ltd” but they said it was only their friend-company. Before erasing the video-recording they did not want me to take my camera. They got interested in my occupation; they asked where I studied and recorded my phone number. I felt kind of threat in their speech. “Don’t you want to continue your studies? Do you know where you have come? Leave the place immediately before Gela comes here.” They said I had to state that the dissatisfied workers brought me to the wrong place if they faced any problems.”
On April 10, 2009 the press-center of the Georgian government spread the following announcement: “Today, Prime-minister of Georgia Nika Gilauri visited the construction of the dam in Nikozi village together with the local officials. “Our aim is to resolve all urgent problems in the regions. You know that irrigation is the main problem for peasants. So, we have allocated 15 million GEL for the purpose,” stated Nika Gilauri. The dam will supply the entire Gori district and part of Kaspi district with irrigation water. Currently, 80 % of the work has finished. The construction activities will finish in two stages. Initial activities will finish by May and in June the construction will start working. Afterwards, additional 55 working places will be created for local people.”
It was the presentation of the dam construction. “We call him but his old number is unavailable. We visited his office in Tbilisi but his office turned up moved to another place; nobody knows the new address; we do not have common acquaintances,” said one of the workers.
Nazim Rostomov: “In June of 2009, Gela Labadze told me to hire workers and start construction of the dam and he would pay the money. I collected several people who could assist us in the construction. They were: Eka Gachechiladze (to wash dishes), Gaioz Kakhniashvili (watchman), Jumber Khachirashvili (cook), Vova Airapetiani (builder), etc. Labadze promised to fund our nutrition too but he left the money only several times. Afterwards, we bought food with our money. They had to pay 5 GEL for per person. We had to have dinner twice a day. There were drivers with us and we all needed food but nobody paid money for that. Much time has passed since then; the construction has finished and we thought he would pay the money but…. One of our workers found him somewhere and requested the salary; Gela Labadze asked him to wait for some time. He even promised to give a new job and pay the entire money. However, he has never appeared since then.”
Nodar Jilavdari, driver: “I was a driver. I was transporting gravel from the Mtkvari River in Kaspi to the village of Tedotsminda. They had a machine in the village to work out the gravel. We worked on the road too. I worked in Kaspi, Samtavisi and Gori but nobody paid money to us. I took small salary only once. I live in Rekha village in Gori district. I could not go home every day and slept in the car at nights. Initially they brought food several times but later they stopped it too. We bought food ourselves. They owe 700 GEL to me. We had signed agreement and I can provide corresponding documents. I once called him and he said the salaries will be paid within a week. He repeated the same for the second and third time. I wonder when the time for the payment will come. I asked him to tell the address of their office to go there for my salary but he did not say anything promising they would bring the salary to my house. One year has passed since them. They took everything from the construction area. They even moved from their old office in Tbilisi. Every person who worked on the construction needed money. One man from Khashuri urged them to give at least little money to buy slippers for his children. I do not know what to do. We became victims of swindlers. It is trafficking.”
We called the director of the “Gola XXI Ltd” Gela Labadze who said he had no connection with the workers of the construction. As for the abuse of the journalist in his office, he said he had not witnessed the incident himself.
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