The employment-law side of hiring foreigners in Georgia is codified in the Labour Code: the second article defines the employment relationship without citizenship as a parameter; the fourth article names nationality and origin among the protected grounds; and Article 75 entrusts the Labour Inspectorate with control together with the Labour Migration Law. The Labour Code creates no separate mechanism for verifying a foreigner’s work status — the permit machinery is a separate statute beyond this page; what is read here is the regulation of employment terms.
The law operates regardless of citizenship
The second article determines that an employment relationship is the performance of work by the employee for the employer under the organisational framework of labour, in exchange for remuneration, and that it arises from an agreement reached by the free expression of the will of equal parties — citizenship does not figure in this definition as a parameter. In labour and pre-contractual relations, including the publication of a vacancy announcement and the selection stage, discrimination is prohibited by race, colour of skin, language, ethnic and social affiliation, nationality, origin, property or social status, place of residence, age, sex and the other grounds named by the law. This means that the employment contract of a foreign employee is concluded under the same rules: the same essential terms, the same protection, the same liability.
Protected grounds and the forms of discrimination
The fourth article defines the concept of discrimination and, among the grounds, directly names nationality, origin and ethnic or social affiliation. Discrimination is the intentional or negligent distinction, exclusion or preference of a person on these grounds, which aims at or causes the denial or infringement of equal opportunity or treatment in employment and professional activity. The law further distinguishes direct and indirect discrimination: indirect discrimination exists where a neutral provision, criterion or practice places a person at a disadvantage — unless it is objectively justified by a lawful aim and the means employed are necessary and proportionate. Harassment, including sexual harassment, is deemed a form of discrimination. Any differential treatment connected with the employment of a foreigner that rests on these grounds is discrimination; the detailed procedural rules for assessing such a dispute are established by other norms of the legislation.
The inspection interface
Article 75 determines the supervisory body: the Labour Inspection Service secures the effective application of the norms of the Labour Code, the Organic Law on Labour Safety and the Law on Labour Migration. It is precisely this last naming that underlines the boundary: the rules of migration status are determined by a separate law, while the conditions of employment by the Labour Code; the employer’s compliance system is built in anticipation of both regulators.
The employment framework for a team
The internal framework of employing foreigners is cut by three documents. First — the vacancy-announcement rule: under the second and fourth articles the announcement and selection must be neutral as to nationality and origin, and this requirement is controlled in the very text. Second — the form of the employment contract: the same essential terms and the same rules as for citizen employees, since the employment relationship arises regardless of citizenship; the requirement of equal pay for equal work is fixed in the law directly. Third — the inspection-readiness file: under Article 75 the Labour Inspectorate applies the Labour Code and the migration law together, and the employer’s documentation must be accessible to both regulators.
The use of such a framework proceeds in three stages: first an audit of existing announcements and contracts with a neutrality test; then the identification and correction of possible instances of differential treatment; and finally the assembly of the inspection-readiness file, from which the demands of both regulators read as one frame. The team thus works in a single legal regime, regardless of citizenship. The question of migration status lies beyond this framework: the permit procedure is determined by the Law on Labour Migration, and the task of this page is to show the legal equality of employment terms — the regulation of status remains a separate procedure, and any departure from that equality is measured by the fourth article.
Does the Labour Code extend to foreigners?
Yes — the employment relationship arises regardless of citizenship, and the Code regulates every employment in Georgia.
May differentiation be based on nationality?
No — nationality and origin are protected grounds of the fourth article; differential treatment is discrimination, whether direct or indirect.
Where is the permit procedure?
In the Law on Labour Migration — a separate regulator; Article 75 obliges the Inspectorate to apply both.
Must a foreigner be paid the same?
Equal pay for equal work is a principle of the law, and a pay difference grounded in nationality falls under the discrimination concept of the fourth article.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The specialists of Legal.ge draft the compliance framework for employing foreigners on the second, fourth and seventy-fifth articles: we equalise employment terms, fix the protected grounds in internal documents and assemble the inspection-readiness file. Contact Legal.ge — receive the framework of your team, placing every employee in a single legal regime regardless of citizenship.