Georgia’s 2015 Law on Public Service was designed, with international support, to build a merit-based and stable civil service. Since December 2024, Parliament has amended it four times. Civil society organisations report that the changes removed key job protections and were followed by hundreds of dismissals; the authorities have generally justified dismissals on formal grounds such as reorganisation or contract expiry. This analysis sets out what has changed in the employment conditions of public servants and why it matters for labour rights.
Key Findings
- The Law on Public Service was adopted on 27 October 2015 and entered into force on 1 July 2017; it was amended 38 times between 2016 and 2022 (FES, 2022).
- Between 2017 and 2021, 6,434 public officers were dismissed, and 279 challenged their dismissal in court (Civil Service Bureau data, via FES, 2022).
- Since December 2024 the law has been amended four times, with the third and fourth rounds adopted on 20 February and 1 April 2025 (Transparency International Georgia, 2025).
- TI Georgia reported about 700 politically motivated dismissals by April 2025, on incomplete information; a later report citing the independent public servants’ trade union put the number above 1,200 by September 2025 (TI Georgia, 2025; Institute of Central Europe, 2026).
- The Civil Service Bureau — the body responsible for implementing the reform — and the Parliamentary Research Center were closed (TI Georgia, 2025).
1. Introduction
Public servants are employees, and the rules governing their recruitment, tenure and dismissal are labour law. Georgia’s public service reform, part of its commitments under the EU Association Agreement, aimed to replace a system in which jobs often changed with political leadership by one based on merit, career development and stable employment (TI Georgia, 2025; FES, 2022).
This analysis asks what the 2024–2025 amendments changed in public servants’ employment protection, what is known about dismissals, and what the implications are for labour rights. It focuses on employment conditions rather than on the wider political dispute, and reports the positions of the parties with attribution.
2. Background
The 2015 law, with a companion Law on Remuneration in Public Institutions adopted in 2017, introduced competitive recruitment, a rank system and protections against arbitrary dismissal. Even before 2024, implementation was uneven: an FES policy document found frequent amendments and a high rate of outflow, with many dismissals based on reorganisation (FES, 2022).
3. Findings
3.1 What the amendments changed
| Area | Reported change |
|---|---|
| Job security | Key guarantees of legal protection removed; dismissal through reorganisation made easier |
| Diplomatic service | Diplomats no longer appointed for life; may be dismissed when a minister leaves |
| Secondary activities | Scientific, teaching and artistic work only with written consent of the head of institution |
| Oversight | Civil Service Bureau abolished |
Source: Transparency International Georgia (2025).
3.2 Dismissals
TI Georgia reported dismissals across dozens of institutions, including the Ministry of Defence, Tbilisi City Hall, the National Agency of Public Registry, the Justice House and several municipalities. It noted that in most cases dismissals were formally justified by reorganisation or the expiry of contracts (TI Georgia, 2025). Public servants established an independent trade union on 11 December 2024 (TI Georgia, 2025).
4. Discussion
The government’s position
The authorities have presented the changes as administrative reorganisation and have relied on legal grounds — reorganisation and contract expiry — for dismissals. According to the Institute of Central Europe, the Prime Minister publicly criticised civil servants after employees of a number of public institutions issued statements in late 2024, and the amendments were then adopted through an expedited procedure (Institute of Central Europe, 2026).
The critics’ position
TI Georgia and other observers argue that the amendments effectively abolished the public service reform implemented with international support, and that dismissals targeted employees who expressed dissent, including through public statements on EU integration (TI Georgia, 2025; Institute of Central Europe, 2026).
The labour rights dimension
Whatever view is taken of the political dispute, several labour standards questions arise. Dismissal on grounds of reorganisation is lawful in principle, but international standards require that it be genuine, transparent and subject to effective appeal. Restrictions on secondary academic and artistic work affect public servants’ freedom to engage in other activity. And the formation of an independent union by public servants raises questions about freedom of association, protected under ILO Convention No. 87, which Georgia has ratified. Independent review of dismissals — including court outcomes — would allow these questions to be assessed on evidence.
5. Limitations
Dismissal figures since December 2024 come from civil society and trade union sources and are acknowledged to be incomplete; no official comprehensive figure has been published. This analysis has not reviewed court decisions on individual dismissals. The motivation for individual dismissals cannot be established from aggregate data.
6. Conclusion
The employment protections built into Georgia’s public service since 2015 have been substantially weakened by the 2024–2025 amendments, and the body that oversaw them has been abolished. Regardless of the political context, public servants are workers entitled to fair procedures, effective appeal and freedom of association. Transparent data on dismissals and their legal outcomes are essential to assess whether those rights are respected.
GILS Recommendations
- Publish official data on dismissals in public institutions since 2024, by institution and legal ground.
- Restore an independent oversight body for public service employment, with a mandate to review dismissals.
- Ensure effective, timely judicial review of dismissals justified by reorganisation.
- Respect public servants’ freedom of association, including the right to form and join independent unions.
- Review restrictions on secondary academic and artistic activity for proportionality.
GILS Position
Public servants are employees with labour rights. GILS calls for transparent data, independent oversight and effective appeal mechanisms, so that changes in public administration respect the employment protections that a merit-based civil service requires.
References
- Transparency International Georgia (2025). Georgian Dream’s Repressions in Public Service. 14 April 2025. transparency.ge
- Institute of Central Europe (2026). From EU-standard institutional reform to party control: the transformation of Georgia’s public service. IES Commentaries. ies.lublin.pl
- Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (2022). Policy document on dismissals in Georgia’s public service. fes.de
- JAMnews (2025). Around 700 civil servants sacked in Georgia for political reasons — Transparency International. jam-news.net
- FactCheck Georgia (n.d.). Georgia’s ratification of ILO fundamental conventions. factcheck.ge
Suggested citation: GILS Research Team (2026). Georgia’s Public Service Law After the 2024–2025 Amendments. Editor: G. Pkhakadze. Georgian Institute of Labour Studies, Tbilisi. labour.edu.ge
GILS analyses are prepared with AI-assisted drafting. All figures and claims are verified against the cited primary sources and reviewed under the responsibility of the Editor.