The former workers of the furniture salon, Embawood spoke on the company’s illegal practices and protested release from their employment positions through blatant violations of contract conditions and simply firing them without any form of notification.

According to Nona Saghareishvili, the lawyer defending the worker’s case, work conditions at Embawood are inhumane and in violation of the law to such a serious degree that even criminal violations are becoming evident. The store started hiring workers for the holiday season when sales peak and then fired them without any form of explanation or notification. One of the released employees, Davit Jabiev, stated that his contract expired on the 31st of December yet the company never notified him, thus he was employed until the 14th of January when they told him that he was a victim of the layoffs and was not part of the Embawood workforce.

"We requested that they show us our old work contracts which the company provided, however certain conditions that we had signed in the original contracts were removed. As for the work environment, it’s inhumane and impossible to withstand."

A sectoral branch of the GTUC – Trade Union of Self Employed and Commercial Sector Workers of Georgia announced that it supports the demands of the workers. The chairwoman of the Trade Union of Self Employed and Commercial Sector Workers of Georgia, Miranda Mandaria, focused on the inhumane work conditions and labor code violations. Ms. Mandaria hopes that rehiring will ensue either through negotiations with the employer or through a court ruling and further acts of harassment will not transpire.

Sourced from GTUC