Occupational Safety & Health · People

Workplace action and training

Management systems, safety specialists, small enterprises and training — how prevention is organised inside Georgian workplaces.

Last updated: 3 October 2026

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Overview

Laws and inspection set the frame; prevention happens inside the enterprise. The ILO's model for workplace action is the management-system approach of ILO-OSH 2001 — policy, organising, planning, evaluation, improvement — compatible with ISO 45001, together with participatory training for small enterprises. Georgia's own mechanism is the accredited occupational safety specialist that every employer must designate under the 2019 law.

Key figures

ILO-OSH 2001

ILO Guidelines on OSH management systems

ILO

ISO 45001:2018

International management-system standard for OSH

ISO

Mandatory

Accredited safety specialist for every employer under the Organic Law on Occupational Safety (2019)

Georgian law

Not published

Number of accredited OSH specialists or ISO 45001-certified enterprises in Georgia

GILS

How prevention is organised


Element	ILO model	Georgia
Policy and responsibility	Written OSH policy; employer responsibility; worker participation	Employer duties under the 2019 law; works councils or safety committees not required in published sources
Risk assessment	Hazard identification and risk assessment as the core process	Required by the 2019 law
Competent person	OSH professional or service	Accredited safety specialist (training programme required)
Worker participation	Safety representatives and joint committees (ILO-OSH 2001; Convention No. 155)	Labour Code Art. 70 provides for elected employee representatives and information and consultation in enterprises of 50 or more, but no OSH-specific safety representatives or committees of the kind required by Convention No. 155 (Art. 19–20) and the EU Framework Directive (Art. 11); Convention No. 155 not ratified
Health surveillance	Occupational health services (Convention No. 161)	Not required for all workers
Recording and review	Accident and near-miss recording; audits; continual improvement	Accidents reported to the Labour Inspection Service; near-miss recording not required

Small and micro enterprises

Most Georgian enterprises are micro and small, and informality is concentrated in micro-enterprises (Pignatti, 2026). The ILO's answer is simplified, participatory approaches — the Participatory Action-Oriented Training (PAOT) methods such as WISE (Work Improvement in Small Enterprises) and WIND (Work Improvement in Neighbourhood Development) for farms — which rely on low-cost improvements chosen by workers and owners. No such programme has been documented in Georgia in published sources.

Training and courses

ITCILO occupational safety and health courses — the ILO's training centre in Turin, online and residential.
GILS certificate courses, with GMJ Academy — Work and Health and the other courses on the Certificate Courses page.
Accredited programmes for occupational safety specialists required by Georgian law — provided by accredited training institutions in Georgia.
Hospital and clinic accreditation standards (Accréditation Sans Frontières) as a route to staff safety requirements in health facilities.

Public health perspective (WHO)

WHO's Healthy Workplace Framework and Model (2010) is the health-system counterpart to the ILO management system: a continual-improvement cycle covering the physical work environment, the psychosocial environment, personal health resources (health promotion) and enterprise community involvement. WHO also promotes basic occupational health services for small enterprises through primary health care. Workers' health: the public health perspective.

Data gaps

Number of accredited OSH specialists, training providers and certified enterprises not published.
No evaluation of the specialist system's effect on accidents.
No small-enterprise OSH programme documented.

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.


Act	Official text	Articles relied on
Organic Law — Labour Code of Georgia (No. 4113-რს, 17 December 2010, as amended; major amendment No. 7177, 29 September 2020)	Matsne 1155567	Art. 2 and 4 — discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment, equal pay for equal work; Art. 10 — minimum age 16 (14 with consent for light work), hazardous work barred for minors and pregnant women; Art. 17 — probation up to 6 months; Art. 24 — 40-hour week, 48 hours in listed sectors, 12-hour daily and 24-hour weekly rest, working-time records; Art. 27 — overtime; Art. 28 — night work 22:00–06:00, barred for minors and pregnant women, 8-hour cap in hazardous work; Art. 31 — 24 working days' paid leave, 10 extra days for hazardous work; Art. 37 and 39 — maternity leave 126 days, state benefit; Art. 45 — safe and healthy working environment, right to refuse dangerous work, employer's duty to compensate harm; Art. 47–49 — termination grounds, notice and compensation, collective redundancies; Art. 52–57 — freedom of association, collective agreements; Art. 61–67 — disputes, mediation, strike and lockout, essential services; Art. 70 — information and consultation through elected employee representatives in enterprises of 50 or more
Organic Law of Georgia on Occupational Safety (19 February 2019; replaced the Law of March 2018)	Matsne 4486188	Employer duties, risk assessment, designation of an occupational safety specialist, workers' rights, inspection powers and sanctions; applies to all sectors
Law of Georgia on the Labour Inspection Service (No. 7178-Iს, 29 September 2020)	Matsne 5003057	Art. 2 — legal status; Art. 4 — governing acts; Art. 5 — aim and functions; Art. 13–16 — inspection powers; Art. 20 — reporting
Government Decree No. 381 — list of heavy, harmful and hazardous works	Matsne (Georgian)	Defines hazardous work for the purposes of the Labour Code and the Occupational Safety law
Government Decree No. 597 — sectors with specific working regimes (48-hour week)	Matsne (Georgian)	Implements Labour Code Art. 24(3)

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

ILO. Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems (ILO-OSH 2001). www.ilo.org
ILO. Participatory Action-Oriented Training (PAOT). www.ilo.org
Pignatti, C. (2026). Recent trends on informal employment in Georgia. ILO Working Paper 159. doi.org
ETF–Eurofound (2024). Working life in Georgia. www.etf.europa.eu
ITCILO. Courses on occupational safety and health. www.itcilo.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.