Lela Khidasheli, Kutaisi
Nanuli Gakhokidze, a resident of Khoni district in Imereti Region, Western Georgia, worked at the Khoni Branch of the Tbilisi Comprehensive Art School since January 1 2000 as a nurse. During the first 3 years of her employment she received a meager salary of 15 GEL and afterwards she received 25 GEL a month. Nanuli Gakhokidze doubted about the amount of her official salary since she signed the salary acceptance report on 53 GEL in October of 2005. However, the director of the school still paid only 25 GEL as a standard practice. The dispute found its way to court.
“When I started learning what was the actual amount of my salary I soon found myself unemployed. Afterwards I sent a letter to her and requested to prepare an official notification on my real salary. Neither she nor Tsitso Japaraidze, the Director General of the Tbilisi Art College, answered my request,” said Nanuli Gakhokidze, in a report that she made to Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi Office.
After the attorney became involved in the case Nanuli Gakhokidze received a notification which contained the requested data on the salary as a nurse at the Art School. The notification stated that since January 2000 to August of 2002 the nurse had to receive 31 GEL and not 15 or 25 GEL as a salary; from September to December of 2002 the salary was 40 GEL; from 2003 to August of 2004 the salary was 52 GEL; and in 2005 Nanuli Gakhokidze had to be paid 53 GEL. The notification also stated that the nurse had taken the total amount of her salary during the entire period of her employment. However, Nanuli Gakhokidze claims that it is not correct. “There is not a salary document that indicates the total sum of my salary,” said Gakhokidze.
The case discussion went on at the court. Nanuli Gakhokidze requests to charge Makvala Salukvadze to pay 2404 GEL, the actual amount of the salary that was held back during a period of five years. Besides that, in accordance of the Georgian Labor Code Gakhokidze requests to pay 0, 07 % of the salary that was not paid her adds up to an additional 3 832 GEL.
As it was found out Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Guria Branches of the Investigative Division within the Georgian Department of Revenue conduct preliminary investigation based on Nanuli Gakhokidze’s appeal. The nurse points culpability to the former director for extorting her salary.
Malkhaz Modebadze, the investigator of the department, explained that “Criminality expertise should be carried out on the signatures in order to pass a final decision on the case. Currently we are trying to access all necessary documents in order to begin an expert review of the paperwork. Afterwards we will be able to come to making a legal decision.”
“The salary documents, which were provided by Makvala Salukvadze to the Khoni District Court, do not have the signatures of my client. Consequently I petitioned to the court to collect the documents for evidence. The judge satisfied our petition and decided to carry out a calligraphic expertise on the documents in question. The trial has been postponed until such time as the necessary documents for the expertise have been collected,” said Ana Chapidze, an attorney for Nanuli Gakhokidze.
The next court hearing at the Khoni District Court will decide how much time it will take Nanuli Gakhokidze to receive 6 236 GEL that the former director is accused of holding back from her over the last six years.
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