Equal Employment: The Lawful Framework
Equal employment in Georgia spans the entire recruitment trajectory — from publishing a vacancy to refusing an application. The Labour Code prohibits discrimination in employment, in pre-contractual relations and in professional activity, and creates measurable obligations at every stage of hiring. The United States federal systems of civil-rights reporting and affirmative appointment do not apply here — the selection process of a Georgian employer is governed by the Georgian Labour Code.
Three norms carry the subject: the scope of the prohibition, the genuine-requirements test, and the allocation of the burden of proof; to them is added the special regime of the pre-contractual relationship — the rules on exchanging information before the contract is concluded.
The Scope of the Prohibition and Selection Criteria
Under Article 5, discrimination is prohibited in employment and pre-contractual relations — including when a vacancy is published and at the selection stage. The prohibition covers selection criteria and employment conditions, access to career advancement at every level of the professional hierarchy, access to professional orientation, qualification raising, professional training and retraining in every form — including practical professional experience — the conditions of labour, remuneration and termination, membership of associations of employees or employers — including benefit received from such an organization — and occupational social-protection conditions, including social security and health protection. Even a recruitment advertisement built on a protected ground falls within the prohibition.
Article 6 is the test that makes a differentiated requirement lawful: distinguishing a person is not discrimination where it follows from the essence or specificity of the work or the conditions of its performance, serves a lawful aim, and is a necessary and proportionate means. Every selection criterion should be run through this test: a requirement of age, sex, family status or another protected ground survives only if it flows directly from the nature of the work and is proportionate.
The Burden of Proof and the Exchange of Information
Article 7 sets the algorithm of the dispute: where a candidate or employee points to facts creating a reasonable assumption that the employer violated the prohibition of discrimination, the burden of proof shifts to the employer. In practice this means that documenting every stage of selection — criteria, scores, decisions — is the employer's defence.
Article 11 establishes the regime of the pre-contractual relationship. The employer may obtain only information about the candidate connected with the performance of the work and needed to assess the ability to perform the specific job; the candidate must communicate circumstances that may impede the work or endanger the employer's interests. The employer may verify the correctness of the information submitted by the candidate; the information obtained and submitted may not be made available to another person without the candidate's consent, except cases provided by Georgian legislation. The candidate may reclaim submitted documents if no contract is concluded. The employer must provide information about the work, the form of the contract — oral or written — and its term — fixed or indefinite — the working conditions, the employee's legal status and the remuneration.
Informing the Candidate and the Documentary Trail
The final paragraphs of the same article build the infrastructure of equal treatment: the employer must inform the candidate of the statutory provisions on the principle of equal treatment and the means of its protection, take measures to ensure equal treatment, and reflect anti-discrimination provisions in internal labour rules, collective agreements and other documents and ensure their performance. At the same time, the employer is not obliged to justify a refusal to hire — which is precisely why the surviving documentation becomes the only evidence of the non-discriminatory character of decisions: the application, the assessment sheet and the correspondence with the candidate are the material from which the dispute is assembled. The pre-contractual relationship is considered terminated by the conclusion of the employment contract or by informing the candidate of the refusal.
The documentary trail is created at three points: in the text of the vacancy, in the assessment sheet and in the notice of refusal. The vacancy text must rest only on requirements connected with the work; the assessment sheet on uniform criteria for all candidates; and the notice of refusal is the form that ends the pre-contractual relationship. All three, properly drafted, protect the employer in the dispute, because the burden of proof lies on it and the justification of the decision is proven precisely by these documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below we summarize the questions most often asked about equal employment.
From which stage does the prohibition begin?
Already from the publication of the vacancy: discrimination is prohibited in pre-contractual relations, including selection criteria and employment conditions.
When is a differentiated requirement lawful?
When it follows from the essence or specificity of the work, serves a lawful aim, and is necessary and proportionate.
Who bears the burden of proof?
Once the candidate points to facts creating a reasonable assumption, the burden shifts to the employer.
May submitted information be verified?
Yes — the employer may verify the correctness of the information submitted by the candidate.
What information may the employer request?
Only information connected with the performance of the work and needed to assess the candidate's ability to perform the specific job.
How We Help on Legal.ge
On Legal.ge we align hiring processes with the prohibitions: we review vacancy texts and criteria, draft justifications for genuine requirements, and structure candidate notification and record-keeping. Contact us — we will protect your hiring process from both disputes and inspection risk.