An internal investigation into alleged harassment in Georgia is a legally codified process: which facts the investigation must establish, who bears responsibility and what follows from inaction — all of this is determined by Articles 4, 5, 7, 78 and 62 of the Labour Code. Investigation models characteristic of foreign educational institutions do not exist in the Georgian system — the algorithm of an internal investigation is regulated entirely by the Georgian Labour Code, and it is precisely compliance with its articles that constitutes the employer's defence.
Which facts must be established
Article 4 of the Code defines exactly what conduct is being investigated. Workplace harassment, including sexual harassment, is a form of discrimination: unwanted conduct conditioned on a protected ground, which aims at or causes an infringement of dignity and creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading or offensive environment. Sexual harassment is defined separately as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature pursuing or causing the same result. The object of the investigation also includes retaliation: the termination of the employee's contract or any negative treatment because the employee applied or complained to the relevant body for protection against discrimination, or cooperated with it, is prohibited. The conclusion of an internal investigation must rest on precisely these three categories of facts.
The scope of application
Article 5 of the Code determines where the conduct was committed: discrimination is prohibited in labour and pre-contractual relations — including the publication of a vacancy announcement and the selection stage. The prohibition extends to selection criteria, employment conditions and access to career advancement at every level of the professional hierarchy regardless of the field of activity, as well as to access to every form of professional training and retraining. This means an internal investigation cannot confine itself to employees: episodes involving candidates also become the subject of investigation where an ongoing relationship is affected.