What Safety Audits and Inspections Mean
Safety audits and inspections in Georgia revolve around the mandate of a single state institution — the Labour Inspectorate. Under the Code, the Labour Inspection Service is competent to ensure the effective application of the Constitution, international treaties, the Code itself, the Organic Law on Labour Safety, the Law on Labour Migration, the Law on Public Service and other normative acts on labour rights — collectively, the labour norms. The mandate also embraces employment contracts, collective agreements, mediation agreements and arbitral awards.
The auditor's task is precisely to simulate that mandate: to investigate in advance what the inspectorate will investigate. The authority to examine administrative-offence cases connected with violations of labour norms and to impose administrative penalties belongs to the Labour Inspectorate — so an organisation planning an audit knows in advance who will investigate, what will be investigated, and how it will end.
The Fine Matrix — the Audit's Numerical Outcome
The most measurable part of an audit is the fine matrix. Each violation of a norm provided by the Code triggers a warning or a fine by employer category: for an individual employer with income up to 100 000 GEL — not less than 200 and not more than 400 GEL; for a higher-income individual — not less than 300 and not more than 800 GEL; for VAT-registered organisations the brackets rise: operations up to 100 000 GEL — not less than 300 and not more than 800 GEL; from 100 000 to 500 000 GEL — not less than 400 and not more than 900 GEL; above 500 000 GEL — not less than 600 and not more than 1 000 GEL.
The matrix has multipliers too: a violation against a minor, a pregnant woman or a person with disabilities raises the fine to double, and a repeat of the same act within 1 calendar year of the imposition of the administrative penalty doubles it again. The audit report translates the discovered gaps into numerical risk precisely through this matrix.