Statement of the Public Defender of Georgia Regarding Dismissal of Municipal Public Workers

The Public Defender of Georgia is examining the issue of legitimacy of mass dismissal of employees of local authority bodies, reorganization that had been carried out in self-governing entities and conduction of tests for employees.

The Public Defender‘s Office requested information from various local self-governing bodies pertaining to number of dismissed public workers and grounds of their dismissal. As it appeared, as of October (the first half), 2014, only in Tbilisi municipality 387 public employees were dismissed and grounds for release from employment for 307 of them was personal statements; In the remaining 80 cases, it was mainly the matter of release from the employment based on committing a disciplinary infraction or expiration of the date of the employment contract. Cases of mass release from employment of workers were also noted in other municipalities which, given existing economic situation and the high level of unemployment in the country creates legitimate questions with respect to genuineness of employees willingness to resign and accordingly, to legitimacy of individual administrative-legal acts that were issued.

The Public Defender of Georgia was addressed by numerous former employees of local self-governing bodies who noted that they did not have a wish to leave employment and that statements on their resignation had been written not on their own will but under orders of their superiors, and as a result of pressure and threats exercised against them. The Public Defender’s Office received complaints also from those public employees who despite pressure to write resignation statements at their own initiative, refused to resign on their own free will. The Public Defender ‘s Office sent statements of similar content to the Main Prosecutor’s Office  of Georgia for further response, but to our knowledge there has not been any result on them to this day.

Representatives of the Public Defender studied the situation in Didube District Municipality of Tbilisi based on a citizen application.  As a result of the examination of materials requested from the Didube District Municipality Unit and following the visit to the municipality on September 17 and November 4, 2014, it was determined that after the local authorities elections, every day the Didube District Municipality Unit was visited by unknown persons who had no status but still carried out certain work tasks. And after dismissal of heads of various structural units of the municipality these individuals were appointed as acting heads of these very units. A person, who during the visit of the representatives of the Public Defender on September 17, 2014, to the Didube District Municipality, came to work, to the department of social issues and was executing various work tasks of the district governor without having any official status, by the order of November 5, 2014 was appointed as acting Deputy District Governor of the Didube District Municipality.

Naturally, practice that is taking place in the Didube District Municipality of Tbilisi is unacceptable and in violation of the law.

After the elections, the process of reorganization or liquidation has taken place in many local self-governing bodies, while they are still under way in some of them. The Public Defender of Georgia requested from various municipalities acts issued on conduction of reorganization, also lists of staff approved after the reorganization and information on number of employees dismissed from employment for the reason of reorganization.

The number of public workers dismissed from municipalities following the reorganization/liquidation is quite high. Namely, as of August 2014:  313 public workers were dismissed from Gori municipality district body on the basis of liquidation; 86 public workers were dismissed from Marneuli  municipality district body on the basis of liquidation;  7 public workers dismissed form Akhmeta Municipality district body on the basis of reorganization; 40 public workers dismissed from Dmanisi Municipality district body on the basis of reorganization; 37 public employees from Ninotsminda municipality district body on the basis of liquidation of territorial governance unit; 74 public employees from Shuakhevi municipality district body on the basis of liquidation of territorial governance unit; 19 public employees from Borjomi municipality district body on the basis of liquidation of territorial governance unit; 46 public employees from Kareli municipality District body on the basis of liquidation of territorial governance unit; 37 public employees from Adigeni municipality district body on the basis of liquidation of territorial governance body; 1 Public worker from Sagarejo District municipality body on the basis of reorganization; 70 Public worker from Khobi District municipality body on the basis of reorganization; 44 Public worker from Kvareli District municipality body on the basis of reorganization; 5 Public worker from Gurjaani District municipality body on the basis of reorganization; 2 Public worker from Tsalka District municipality body on the basis of reorganization; 13 public employees from the Rustavi City Hall; 27 public employees from Kutaisi City Hall. It should be noted that in some of the municipalities the process of reorganization has not yet taken place while complete information on reorganization carried out in part of the municipalities has not been arrived to the Public Defender’s Office yet. The Public Defender continues to study this issue.

The Public Defender also responded to the issue of conduction of tests in Tbilisi City Hall. The first stage of the tests was held on November 1, 2014. And the lowest barrier score (45 correct answers out of 60) necessary to pass the test was gained only by 196 out of the 486 city hall employees who participated in the test. The Public Defender of Georgia noted that the number of those persons who failed to pass the minimal barrier is very high and that may have been caused by difficulty of the tests and the fact of setting of a very high barrier. Those persons that successfully passed the first stage of the tests will have to pass an interview.

 The Public Defender of Georgia calls on local municipal authorities to conduct the second stage of tests in line with principles of legality, justice, publicity, transparency, non-bias and objectivity in order to prevent violation of legal rights of individuals participating in the tests. In addition, essential importance should be only given to knowledge, experience ad professional skills and competences of candidates when selecting cadres. Only this circumstance will be a guarantee for successful completion of the reform of self-governing bodies.

In addition, the Public Defender calls on the local authority bodies when making decision regarding dismissal of a public employee, even if this employee requests resignation in his/her personal written statement, examine essential circumstances of the case in details and only after that make an argument decision on release of persons from employment and to do that in order to avoid ignoring legal obligations undertaken by the international and national regulations and to prevent violation of a basic human right – a labour right.

The Public Defender of Georgia will continue to monitor processes that are taking place in local authority bodies.  

Source: ombudsman.ge

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