The Legal Frame of Remote Work
A remote-work contract does not exist in the Georgian Labour Code as a separate contract type — it is an ordinary employment contract in which the workplace clause must be drafted with special care. Concluding such a document rests on four norms: form and term (Article 12), essential terms — including the two variants of defining the place of work (Article 14), the procedure for changing terms (Article 20), and summarized working-time accounting for irregular schedules (Article 26).
Form, Term and Essential Terms
Where the employment relationship exceeds 1 month, the contract must be concluded in writing (Article 12, paragraph 2); a fixed-term contract may be concluded only on the grounds listed in the law, and otherwise — or where the term exceeds 30 months or fixed-term contracts are concluded in succession — the relationship becomes indefinite (Article 12, paragraphs 3–5). For remote work the decisive provision is subparagraph (d) of Article 14, paragraph 1: the place of work is an essential term, and where the employee's permanent or principal workplace is not defined, the contract must contain information about the employee's various places of work. This is the lawful route for formalizing a remote relationship without a fixed place. The remaining essential terms — the start date, working and rest time, position and description of the work, remuneration and the overtime procedure, leave, the termination procedure and collective agreement provisions — are written according to the same catalogue, so a remote contract differs from an office contract in exactly one clause-set: where the work is performed. That clause is also dispute prevention: where the place of work is written precisely, it is clear where the employer's authority extends and where the employee's private space begins.
Changing Terms — The Consent Rule
Moving between remote and office regimes is a change of essential terms, and Article 20 regulates it clearly: by notice, the employer may only clarify individual circumstances of the performance of work that do not change the essential terms (paragraph 1); essential terms may be changed only by agreement of the parties (paragraph 2), save where the change is conditioned by a change in Georgian legislation (paragraph 3). The same article contains two thresholds that do not count as changes: alteration of the place of performance where reaching the new place and back by available public transport takes no more than 3 hours a day and does not require disproportionate expenses; and alteration of the start or end time of work by no more than 90 minutes. The simultaneous alteration of both circumstances is regarded as a change of essential terms (paragraph 5). In remote-contract practice this means that a unilateral "return to the office" order crossing the 3-hour transport threshold requires the employee's consent.
Summarized Accounting
For an irregular remote schedule the law provides a dedicated instrument: where, given the working conditions, observance of the daily or weekly duration of working time is impossible, the introduction of a summarized accounting regime for working time is permitted (Article 26). This instrument is used together with remote arrangements and should be systematically reflected in the contract — because it is what makes the balance of overtime and rest computable. Internal rules may also establish special rules considering the specifics of the work, provided they do not contradict the law and the contract.
The purpose of summarized accounting is practical: it makes the balance of working and rest time computable where the schedule changes from day to day. The documentation of remote work begins with three blocks — the workplace clause, the consent procedure for changes and the accounting regime — each built on precisely the norms explained above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are answers to the questions most often asked about remote work.
Is there a separate remote-work contract type?
No. It is an ordinary employment contract whose workplace clause is written under Article 14, subparagraph (d) — including several places of work where no principal place is fixed.
Can an employer unilaterally move a remote employee to the office?
Only within the narrow thresholds of Article 20, paragraph 4 — e.g., a place change within up to 3 hours of daily transport; an essential change requires the employee's consent (paragraph 2).
When is summarized accounting permitted?
Where observance of the daily or weekly duration is impossible given the working conditions — Article 26.
What about a remote relationship longer than 1 month?
Written form is mandatory (Article 12, paragraph 2); otherwise the employee is left unprotected and the employer carries the risk.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The Legal.ge team drafts remote-work contracts with the right architecture: the workplace clause in both lawful variants, the consent block for changes under the thresholds of Article 20, and the summarized-accounting clause under Article 26.
Contact Legal.ge — a remote relationship must be as documentarily reliable as an office one, and we see where this principle is violated in practice. We review both new and existing contracts — clause by clause.