New Labor Laws and Transparency Regulations Transform Georgia’s Workforce Landscape

A Victory for Labor Rights and Transparency in Georgia

By | September 6, 2023 11:27AM EDT

In a positive step for workers’ rights, Georgia’s Labor Inspectorate has reversed its decision to conceal employers’ names from its inspection reports, which had effectively protected rights-abusing companies from public scrutiny. This decision comes after the inspectorate abruptly began redacting employers’ identifying details in April 2023, claiming that this information was confidential. However, transparency is crucial in promoting responsible business practices and strengthening workers’ rights.

A Brief Background

The Labor Inspectorate in Georgia oversees labor safety and rights in the country. It performs planned and unannounced inspections at workplaces, documents labor law violations, and provides recommendations for rectifying them. In the past, between 2020 and early 2023, the Inspectorate regularly shared these reports, including employers’ details, with the Georgia Fair Labor Platform, a labor rights advocacy coalition.

However, in April 2023, the Inspectorate suddenly redacted employers’ identifying information, claiming that it was confidential. This decision hindered the efforts of the Georgia Fair Labor Platform to upload these reports to its Labor Rights Monitor, a public database that tracks and publishes inspections by the Inspectorate.

The Importance of Transparency

While Georgia’s labor inspection reports are technically public, the Inspectorate does not proactively publish them. Hence, the Labor Rights Monitor fills an essential gap by providing easy access to these documents and allowing people to search them using various parameters, including employer name.

Businesses may have felt uncomfortable with their labor law transgressions being publicly exposed. However, given the fledgling nature of Georgia’s labor rights oversight body, transparency becomes even more critical. The Labor Inspectorate was completely scrapped between 2006 and 2015 and only resumed its full mandate in 2021. This extended absence had severe consequences on Georgia‘s labor rights landscape, leading to rampant unpaid overtime, common wage theft, employee abuse, and most salaries falling well below a living wage.

The Call for Transparency

In response to the Inspectorate’s decision to redact employers’ identifying information, the Fair Labor Platform filed a lawsuit in July challenging the policy. Human Rights Watch also publicly called on the Labor Inspectorate to reverse course, highlighting the importance of transparency and its role in improving business practices in Georgia and strengthening workers’ rights.

A Step Towards Progress

In late August, the Labor Inspectorate made the right decision and resumed sharing unredacted inspection reports with the Fair Labor Platform. This move ensures transparency of the Inspectorate’s work and serves as a crucial step towards promoting responsible business practices and protecting workers’ rights in Georgia.

Conclusion

The reversal of the Labor Inspectorate’s decision to conceal employers’ names in inspection reports is a significant victory for labor rights and transparency in Georgia. By allowing public scrutiny of rights-abusing companies, this decision promotes accountability and encourages responsible business practices. It also strengthens the labor rights landscape in a country that has only recently rebuilt its labor oversight body. Moving forward, it is crucial for Georgia to continue fostering transparency, ensuring that workers’ rights are protected and labor violations are swiftly addressed.

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