Labour Law & Labour Rights

Overview

Georgia's labour law has gone through three phases since 2006: a deregulated Labour Code with no labour inspectorate; partial re-regulation in 2013; and a broad reform in 2020 that strengthened rules on working time, leave and non-discrimination and gave labour inspection a full mandate from 2021. Implementation, coverage of non-standard and informal work, and the ratification of further ILO conventions remain the main open questions.

Key figures

How the law has changed

Georgia, the region and the EU

Source: ILO NORMLEX; see ILO conventions: Georgia in the region.

Source: Supreme Court of Georgia, cited in ETF–Eurofound (2024). There are no specialised labour courts in Georgia.

Georgia transposed five EU occupational safety directives in 2022–2023 (ETF–Eurofound, 2024); see Occupational Safety & Health. The EU–Georgia Association Agreement commits Georgia to approximating further labour law directives.

Key provisions today

Source: Labour Code of Georgia, as summarised in Social Justice Center et al. (2023). See the full text on matsne.gov.ge.

International and EU standards

• Georgia has ratified 19 ILO conventions, including 8 of the 10 fundamental conventions; it has not ratified the occupational safety conventions No. 155 and No. 187, or the labour inspection conventions No. 81 and No. 129 (ILO NORMLEX).
• The EU–Georgia Association Agreement commits Georgia to approximate its labour law to EU directives; the European Commission found "some level of preparation" and "limited progress" in social policy and employment in 2024 (European Commission, 2024).
• See ILO conventions ratified by Georgia and ILO conventions: Georgia in the region.

Issues raised by independent research

• The dismissal ground of "other objective circumstances" is broad, and notice periods and severance pay do not increase with length of service (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).
• Overtime in the private sector lacks a defined maximum duration and pay rate (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).
• Employers' organisations argued during the 2020 reform that new rules would raise costs and reduce flexibility (OC Media, 2020) — see what employers asked for.

These are positions reported by the organisations named.

Research map

• Matsne — official text of the Labour Code of Georgia. matsne.gov.ge
• Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (2024) — 10 years of labour policy and European integration. fes.de
• Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung — legal review of the 2020 labour law reform. fes.de
• Human Rights Watch (2019) — "No Year Without Deaths": deregulation and working conditions in mining. Summary (Civil.ge)
• Social Justice Center et al. (2023) — submission to the UN CESCR on labour rights. Archived copy
• European Commission (2024) — Georgia 2024 Report, chapter on social policy and employment. eur-lex

Data gaps

• Court statistics give the number of labour cases filed and completed, but not their type or outcome.
• The coverage of the Labour Code in practice — the share of workers with written contracts — is not measured regularly.

GILS analyses on this topic

GILS Analysis · 3 Oct 2026Labour Inspection in Georgia Five Years After the Full Mandate: More Inspections, an Unratified Convention — and the Evidence Still MissingGeorgia's Labour Inspection Service has had a full mandate only since 2021. Inspections have grown fast, but Convention No. 81 is still unratified, staffing data are out of…GILS Analysis · 27 Sep 2026Georgia’s Public Service Law After the 2024–2025 Amendments: What Changed for Public Servants’ Job ProtectionGeorgia'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.…GILS Analysis · 26 Sep 2026Georgia’s Employment Promotion Law: A Framework for Job Seekers, Not Yet a System for the UnemployedGeorgia's Law on Employment Promotion, adopted in July 2020, was the country's first comprehensive legal framework for public employment services. It created the State Employment Support Agency, defined…GILS Analysis · 30 Aug 2026Georgia’s Equality Law After the 2025 Amendments: What Changed — and What It Means for Women at WorkGeorgia's Law on Gender Equality, adopted in 2010, was renamed and amended in April 2025: the term "gender" was removed from it and from related laws and replaced…GILS Analysis · 26 Aug 2026Georgia’s Labour Code Since 2006: From Deregulation to EU Approximation — and the Gaps That RemainGeorgia's Labour Code, adopted in 2006, offered workers minimal protection, and its first years coincided with the abolition of labour inspection. Two major reforms — in 2013 and…GILS Analysis · 23 Aug 2026Georgia’s Anti-Discrimination Law at Ten Years: 1,363 Cases, a Stronger Mandate — and Weak Remedies for WorkersGeorgia's Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination was adopted on 2 May 2014, creating an equality mechanism within the Public Defender's Office. In its first…Georgia Wire · 20 Aug 2026Georgia Wire: Fixed-Term Contracts in Georgian Labour Law — What the 2013 and 2020 Reforms Changed, and What RemainsBefore 2013, most employment contracts in Georgia were short fixed-term contracts, renewed again and again. The 2013 and 2020 Labour Code reforms set limits: fixed-term contracts of less…GILS Analysis · 19 Aug 2026Who Documents Labour Rights Violations in Georgia? Independent Unions, Civil Society and the Labour Inspection ServiceWho documents labour rights violations in Georgia? Alongside the Labour Inspection Service and the Public Defender, independent unions and civil society organisations — the Solidarity Network, the New…Georgia Wire · 16 Aug 2026Georgia Wire: Domestic Workers Remain Outside the Labour Code — What the Evidence Shows as the ILO Raises the IssueDomestic workers — nannies, cleaners, carers and cooks working in private homes — remain outside the effective protection of Georgia's Labour Code. The best available estimate puts their…Global Wire · 13 Aug 2026The EU Platform Work Directive: What a Presumption of Employment Would Mean for Georgia’s CouriersThe EU's Platform Work Directive, adopted in October 2024, introduces a legal presumption that platform workers are employees when a platform directs and controls their work, and new…Georgia Wire · 10 Aug 2026Georgia Wire: What Employers Have Asked for in Labour Code Reform — From the 2013 Amendments to the 2020 PackageGeorgia's two major Labour Code reforms — in 2013 and 2020 — were both shaped by intense lobbying from business associations. Employers sought flexibility on working time, termination…

Related data and standards

• Labour Law Library
• ILO conventions ratified by Georgia
• ILO conventions in the South Caucasus

← All topics · All analyses →

Legal sources (Matsne, with article numbers)

Statutory references on this page are to the following acts in the Legislative Herald of Georgia (Matsne), with the articles relied on. English translations on Matsne are official for the Labour Code and the Labour Inspection law; the Occupational Safety law's English text is an unofficial translation.

Consolidated versions change; the links open the current consolidated text. GILS cites the version in force at the date of the page's "Last updated".

Sources for this page

• ETF–Eurofound (2024). Working life in Georgia. etf.europa.eu
• Matsne. Organic Law of Georgia — Labour Code of Georgia. manage.matsne.gov.ge
• Civil.ge (2013). Labor Code amendments passed with first reading. civil.ge
• Civil.ge (2020). Georgia passes sweeping labor code package. civil.ge
• OC Media (2020). Sweeping labour reforms go ahead in Georgia. oc-media.org
• ILO NORMLEX. Ratifications for Georgia. normlex.ilo.org
• European Commission (2024). Georgia 2024 Report. eur-lex.europa.eu
• Social Justice Center et al. (2023). Submission to the UN CESCR (archived copy). web.archive.org

Figures are from the GILS Evidence Register and the official sources shown. GILS is independent of government, trade unions, employers' organisations and the ILO.