The investigation of workplace accidents in Georgia falls within the competence of the Labour Inspection Service, and this authority is defined by Articles 75, 76 and 77 of the Labour Code, while the object of the investigation — the duties whose breach is investigated — is defined by Article 45. Federal accident-investigation agency models known from foreign law do not operate in the Georgian system: the investigating authority for a workplace accident in Georgia is the Labour Inspectorate. This page describes the full trajectory of the investigation — from the mandate to the imposition of a fine — and explains how an employer should prepare for it.
The Inspectorate's mandate and powers
Under Article 75 of the Code, the Labour Inspection Service — subordinate to the state control of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs — is authorised to secure the effective application of labour norms: the Constitution, international treaties, the Labour Code, the Organic Law on Labour Safety, the Law on Labour Migration and other normative acts, employment contracts and collective agreements. Article 76 extends this mandate with an administrative element: the Labour Inspectorate has the right to hear administrative-offence cases connected with violations of labour norms and to impose the penalties provided for by Articles 77 to 80 of the Code. The post-accident investigation and the administrative case are thus concentrated in the hands of a single authority.
What the investigation examines
The subject of the investigation is the performance of the duties imposed by Article 45. The employer is obliged to ensure a working environment that is maximally safe and healthy for the employee's life and health; to supply complete, objective and comprehensible information on every factor affecting life and health; to introduce a preventive labour-safety system, to provide information on risks and preventive measures and, where necessary, to equip the employee with personal protective equipment; and to take all reasonable measures for the localisation of an accident's consequences, first aid and evacuation. The investigation establishes performance against precisely this list, and upon discovering a breach activates the sanction of Article 77.