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Occupational Safety & Health

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Occupational Safety & Health

Workplace safety, occupational accidents and disease, labour inspection and the ILO safety conventions.

Last updated: 3 October 2026

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Overview

Georgia abolished its labour inspectorate in 2006 and, for almost a decade, had no state body supervising safety at work. Recorded workplace deaths rose sharply in that period, concentrated in mining and construction. Since 2015 the state has rebuilt safety regulation step by step: an inspection department in 2015, an Organic Law on Occupational Safety in 2019, and a Labour Inspection Service with a full mandate from 2021.

Recorded workplace deaths have fallen since 2018, while recorded injuries rose until 2023 — which may reflect better reporting as well as risk. Construction remains the most dangerous sector. This page brings together the official data, the legal framework, the institutions involved and the independent research on the subject.

Key figures

32

Workplace deaths in 2025 — all men; 21 on construction sites

Labour Inspection Service, via Georgia Today (2026)

179

Workplace injuries recorded in 2025

Labour Inspection Service, via Georgia Today (2026)

−42%

Fall in workplace deaths between 2018 and 2023 (59 to 34)

Labour Inspection Service; Fair Labour Platform data

7,111

Labour inspections carried out in 2025

Parliament of Georgia (2026)

78

Deaths in construction, 2019–2023 — the highest of any sector

Fair Labour Platform data (2024)

C155 · C187

Fundamental ILO safety conventions not ratified by Georgia

ILO NORMLEX

The global picture

2.93 million

Workers die each year as a result of work-related factors — ILO (2023)

ILO

395 million

Workers sustain a non-fatal work injury each year — ILO (2023)

ILO

2.41 billion

Workers exposed to excessive heat each year — ILO (2024)

ILO

2022

Year a safe and healthy working environment became an ILO fundamental principle and right at work — ILO

ILO

Section map

Twenty-six pages in six groups. Every page carries the labour-standards view and a WHO public-health section.

Two perspectives: ILO and WHO

The ILO frames safety and health at work as a labour standard: conventions, inspection, employer duties, accident recording. WHO frames it as public health: the burden of work-related disease, occupational health services within the health system, health promotion at work. The two meet in joint instruments — the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates, the International Chemical Safety Cards, the health-worker framework and guide. This section carries both: every page has a labour section and a "Public health perspective (WHO)" section, so that an inspector and a hospital director find their own entry point. See Workers' health: the public health perspective.

The WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury attribute 1.9 million deaths in 2016 to 19 occupational risk factors: 81% from non-communicable disease — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (450,000), stroke (400,000), ischaemic heart disease (350,000) — and 19% from injuries (360,000); long working hours alone account for about 745,000 (WHO and ILO, 2021).

Two global estimates. The ILO estimates 2.93 million work-related deaths a year (2019 data, published 2023); the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates give 1.9 million for 2016 from 19 quantified risk factors and state that the true burden is substantially larger. The figures differ in method and scope, not in direction; GILS cites each with its source.

Trends in workplace deaths and injuries

Rates per 100,000 workers
Year	Deaths per 100,000	Injuries per 100,000
2018	4.55	15.35
2019	3.47	13.33
2020	3.14	20.05
2021	3.03	20.78

Source: Georgia Fair Labour Platform, Workplace Death & Injury Statistics (2024, archived copy), based on Labour Inspection Service data. Later rates have not been published in accessible form.

Data for 2018–2022 were compiled by the Georgia Fair Labour Platform from Labour Inspection Service reports. Data for 2023 and 2025 are from the annual reports of the Service. No national figure for 2024 was found in accessible publications.

Human Rights Watch noted in its 2025 World Report that the rate of workplace injuries per 100,000 workers had increased every year since 2020, while workplace deaths declined over the same period (HRW, 2025).

Georgia, the region and the EU

Georgia's rate is deaths recorded by the Labour Inspection Service per 100,000 workers; the EU rate is Eurostat's standardised incidence rate for agriculture, industry and services excluding public administration and road traffic deaths. The series are indicative, not strictly comparable.

EU occupational safety directives transposed by Georgia, 2022–2023
Directive	Subject
89/654/EEC	Minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace
89/656/EEC	Personal protective equipment
90/269/EEC	Manual handling of loads
90/270/EEC	Work with display screen equipment
92/58/EEC	Safety and health signs at work

Source: ETF–Eurofound (2024), Working life in Georgia.

Workplace accidents recorded by the Ministry, 2018–2022
Year	All accidents	Per 1,000 employees
2018	258	0.2
2019	213	0.2
2020	288	0.2
2021	290	0.2
2022	365	0.3

Source: Ministry of IDPs, Labour, Health and Social Affairs, cited in ETF–Eurofound (2024). Note: ETF–Eurofound reports 33 deaths in 2021, where the Fair Labour Platform's compilation of inspection data gives 37; GILS shows both.

Where accidents happen

Deaths and injuries by sector, 2019–2023 (top five)
Sector	Deaths	Injuries
Construction	78	205
Manufacturing	24	234
Transport and storage	19	105
Mines and quarries	10	156
Wholesale and retail trade	4	120

Deaths and injuries by region, 2019–2023 (largest)
Region	Deaths	Injuries
Tbilisi	54	424
Imereti	29	248
Kvemo Kartli	17	86
Ajara	9	40
Kakheti	9	20

Source: Georgia Fair Labour Platform (2024, archived copy), based on Labour Inspection Service data.

The Labour Inspection Service has identified mining and quarrying; electricity, gas and steam supply; construction; manufacturing; and transport and storage as especially dangerous industries (US Department of State, 2025). Civil society organisations identify Chiatura, Tkibuli, Zestaponi and Rustavi as locations of high-risk workplaces (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).

Historical context

2006–2015: no state labour inspectorate. A Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung study cited by Human Rights Watch found that workplace deaths rose by 74% over 2007–2017; deaths averaged 41 a year, against 24 a year in 2002–2005 (HRW, 2019, via RFE/RL).
2011–2022: 514 workers died and 1,767 were injured in workplace accidents (Social Justice Center, cited in Social Justice Center et al., 2023).
2015: a labour conditions inspection department was created, with powers limited to safety.
2019: the Organic Law on Occupational Safety allowed inspectors to enter workplaces without notice or a court order, with fines of GEL 100–50,000 and the power to suspend work (OC Media, 2019).
2021: the Labour Inspection Service received a full mandate over labour rights and safety.

Legal and policy framework

Main instruments
Instrument	What it does
Organic Law of Georgia on Occupational Safety (2019)	Sets employers' safety duties; sanctions include warnings, fines and suspension of work
Law of Georgia on the Labour Inspection Service (2020)	Establishes the Service; inspectors may enter any workplace without prior notice
Labour Code of Georgia	Working time, rest and conditions of work, including for hazardous work
ILO Conventions No. 155 and No. 187	Fundamental conventions on occupational safety and health since 2022 — not ratified by Georgia
ILO Conventions No. 81 and No. 129	Governance conventions on labour inspection — not ratified by Georgia

See the Labour Law Library and ILO conventions ratified by Georgia.

Institutions and actors

Labour Inspection Service — legal entity under the Ministry responsible for labour; inspects workplaces, investigates accidents and reports annually to Parliament.
Parliament of Georgia — the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee and the Economic Policy Committee hear the Service's annual reports.
Public Defender of Georgia — reports annually on labour rights, including safety.
Social partners — the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation and the Georgian Employers' Association, members of the Tripartite Social Partnership Commission.
Civil society — the Social Justice Center, the Civil Society Foundation, and the Georgia Fair Labour Platform (a coalition of unions and NGOs whose website is no longer online; GILS cites its archived publications).
International — the ILO, the European Union and the Council of Europe (European Committee of Social Rights).

Research map: who has studied occupational safety in Georgia

Human Rights Watch (2019) — "No Year Without Deaths": working conditions in a coal mine and a manganese mine, and the effect of deregulation. Summary (Civil.ge)
Georgia Fair Labour Platform (2024) — Workplace Death & Injury Statistics: deaths and injuries by year, sector and region, from inspection reports and freedom-of-information requests. Archived copy
Social Justice Center — studies of labour inspection (2020, 2021, 2022), including mining-sector inspections and sanctions. Fragmented labour inspection (2020, in Georgian)
Social Justice Center, GYLA, Partnership for Human Rights and Georgia Fair Labour Platform (2023) — joint submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with a chapter on safety at work. Archived copy
ETF–Eurofound (2024) — Working life in Georgia: health and safety, accidents and the transposition of EU directives. Report
Civil Society Foundation (2023) — effectiveness of the labour inspection process. Factsheet
Human Rights Watch, World Reports — annual updates on workplace deaths and inspection. World Report 2025: Georgia
US Department of State (2025) — 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Georgia, section on occupational safety. Report
Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (2018) — appeal on the International Day for Dead and Injured Workers, with historical estimates. Statement (in Georgian)

Findings from independent research

The labour inspectorate relied mainly on warnings rather than fines or suspension, regardless of the severity of violations (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).
Inspections in mining were few: 9 in 2020, 22 in 2021 and 80 in 2022 (Social Justice Center et al., 2023, citing Labour Inspection Office reports).
Workers filed only 42 safety complaints with the Labour Inspection Service in 2022 (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).
The law did not adequately cover informal and non-standard work, and the inspectorate lacked the mandate and resources to cover these sectors (US Department of State, 2025).

These are findings reported by the organisations named. The Labour Inspection Service reports falling violations and fatalities (Parliament of Georgia, 2026); see the GILS analysis of labour inspection below.

Data gaps

No national figure for workplace deaths and injuries in 2024 was found in accessible publications.
Rates per 100,000 workers have not been published in accessible form since 2021.
There are no published national statistics on occupational diseases.
Accidents in the informal economy are largely unrecorded.
Between 2006 and 2015 the state did not systematically record workplace accidents (GTUC, 2018).

Related across the PHIG network

Occupational safety and health connects GILS to the accreditation and education platforms of the PHIG network.

ASF standards and self-assessment tools for seven facility types — occupational safety requirements inside accreditation standards.
ASF free resource libraries — 56 wayfinding signs, 10 patient-safety posters, 142 patient booklets, 65 tools.
Accreditation Canada — Georgia office — accredited Georgian facilities and local advisory services.
GMJ Academy — courses on patient and staff safety.

GILS is a programme of the Public Health Institute of Georgia; see the PHIG network.

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…

Georgia Wire · 14 Sep 2026Georgia Wire: Parliament Hears the Labour Inspection Service’s 2025 Report — Five Years After the Full MandateParliament's Economic Policy Committee has heard the Labour Inspection Service's report for 2025: 7,111 inspections, 3,709 facilities inspected for the first time, and a reported 46% fall in…

GILS Analysis · 12 Sep 2026Georgia Has Not Ratified the ILO’s Fundamental Safety Conventions: Why C155 and C187 MatterIn 2022 the International Labour Conference made a safe and healthy working environment a fundamental principle and right at work, raising the ILO's two framework conventions on occupational…

Georgia Wire · 7 Aug 2026Georgia Wire: 32 Workplace Deaths in 2025, Two-Thirds in Construction — What the Labour Inspection Data ShowThe Labour Inspection Service recorded 32 workplace deaths and 179 injuries in 2025, and reported a 46% fall in fatal accidents compared with the previous year. Construction accounted…

Related data and standards

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Positions of the social partners (as documented)

GILS reports the positions of workers' and employers' organisations as they have stated them publicly. Both organisations may request corrections or publish a reply under the right-of-reply policy.


Organisation	Documented position	Source
Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC)	In 2019 called for ratification of ILO Conventions No. 176 (safety and health in mines), No. 183 (maternity protection) and No. 156 (workers with family responsibilities)	ILO ACTRAV (2019)
GTUC	On the 2018 World Day for Safety and Health at Work, called attention to workplace deaths and the need for a full labour inspectorate	GTUC (2018)
GTUC	Has described the 2020 labour law reform as a step forward while pressing for enforcement and for collective bargaining; union density is estimated at 10–15% and bargaining coverage at 11–14%	ETF–Eurofound (2024) · OC Media
Trade union, labour-rights and civil society organisations (joint submission)	Reported to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2023 that warnings were the main sanction for safety violations, that labour courts are slow and that mining inspections, though rising, remained few	Social Justice Center et al. (2023)
Georgian Employers' Association (GEA)	Founded in 2000; represents employers in the Tripartite Social Partnership Commission; states that it works in accordance with ILO principles and advocates free-market economic policy with minimal state interference	GEA, About · GEA, Committees
GEA	Four of the six employer seats on the Tripartite Commission are held by GEA representatives; GEA also sits on the DCFTA coordination council	GEA, Committees

Positions are summarised from the sources linked; wording is GILS's. Where GILS has not found a public position on an issue, none is attributed.

Statistics, databases and resources

ILOSTAT — Safety and health at work — global statistics on occupational injuries
LEGOSH — global database on OSH legislation — national laws and policies
INTEROSH — OSH agencies, institutions and organisations
ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety
ILO–WHO International Chemical Safety Cards
ILO National OSH Profiles portal
EU-OSHA — European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
Eurostat — accidents at work (hsw)
ITCILO — OSH training courses
Georgian Dictionary of Public Health — Occupational Health & Labour domain

World Day for Safety and Health at Work — 28 April. The ILO's annual day; the 2026 theme is a healthy psychosocial working environment (ILO). GILS marks it each year with The State of Safety and Health at Work in Georgia, first edition 28 April 2027.

Sources for this page

ETF–Eurofound (2024). Working life in Georgia. etf.europa.eu
Georgia Fair Labour Platform (2024). Workplace Death & Injury Statistics. Archived copy, 28 May 2024
Georgia Today (2026). Labour Inspection Service 2025 report. georgiatoday.ge
InterPressNews (2024). Labour Inspection Service: 34 deaths and 347 injuries in 2023 (in Georgian). interpressnews.ge
Parliament of Georgia (2026). Economic Policy Committee heard the report of the Head of the Labour Inspection Service. parliament.ge
RFE/RL (2019). Rights Group: Lax Regulation Puts Georgian Miners At Risk (on HRW, 2019). rferl
OC Media (2019). Georgia beefs up labour inspection department. oc-media.org
Social Justice Center, GYLA, Partnership for Human Rights, Georgia Fair Labour Platform (2023). Submission to the UN CESCR, 74th session. Archived copy
US Department of State (2025). 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Georgia. state.gov
Human Rights Watch (2025). World Report 2025: Georgia. hrw.org
ILO NORMLEX. Ratifications for Georgia.

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