Labour-Safety Inspection: the Regulatory Framework
Supervision of labour safety in Georgia is regulated by the Georgian Law on Labour Safety — inspection, investigation and administrative penalties all operate within its framework. An important caveat at the outset: the separate organic law „On Labour Inspection“, which this law occasionally cross-references, is not part of the legal basis of this page — that layer of inspector status and powers is not reflected here and requires separate consideration. Likewise, EU-OSHA and other international frameworks are comparative context only, not operative norms.
The backbone of the system is the employer's duties. Taking into account the size of the enterprise, the number of employees, working conditions and the respective risks, the employer must observe the legal norms of labour safety, ensure that physical, chemical and biological hazard factors create no danger to employees' health, record accidents and occupational diseases, regularly check the safety of technical equipment, and periodically measure and assess production-environment factors — noise, vibration, lighting, dust, chemical and biological agents.
Training, Information and Insurance
The employer must conduct trainings and instruction for employees and provide information in a language they understand: safe-labour principles, safe use of machinery, emergency situations and evacuation, existing hazards and risks. Training is mandatory at hiring — before work begins; on transfer to another workplace; before introducing a new technological process; and repeatedly, according to plan. Trainings are conducted during working hours, missed days are counted as excused and paid, and they are free of charge for employees.
Special protection covers vulnerable groups: the employer must not employ a person under 18 on work harmful to their health or safety, and must not employ pregnant or nursing women on work harmful to mother or child or involving special risk. At heavy, harmful and hazardous workplaces the employer must insure employees against accidents at its own expense. All costs of labour-safety and sanitary-hygienic measures fall on the employer.
Accident Registration: the 24-Hour Rule
The trigger for inspection is often precisely an accident. The employee must immediately notify the employer of an accident in the workspace. The employer, in turn, must: immediately take measures to avert further danger; preserve the accident site until the arrival of competent organs (except where measures are needed to protect life or health or to avoid serious economic damage); and, within 24 hours of the accident, notify the employees' association and representative, the law-enforcement organs and the supervision organ — in the cases provided for by law.
The employer records accidents and occupational-disease cases with the joint participation of the competent departments, the labour-safety specialist and the injured employee, and preserves evidence of medium-severity, severe, fatal and mass accidents — the detailed procedures are established by an administrative-legal act of the minister.
The Supervision Organ's Powers
The supervision organ controls the observance and application of labour-safety norms, investigates workplace accidents and occupational-disease cases, and records them. Its powers are broad: to inspect, without prior notice, any workspace subject to its inspection and to conduct inspection, investigation and examination at any time of the day; to question the employer, employees, the specialist and the representative on any issue; to demand the transfer of any document and the taking of copies; and, with the employer's informed consent, to conduct photo and video filming and take samples for analysis.
The state strategy in labour safety is defined by the Government of Georgia, while the ministry ensures the development of technical regulations — on personal protective equipment, work with display-screen equipment, asbestos, carcinogens, physical and chemical agents, explosive atmospheres and other directions — and the preparation of annual reports on the state of labour safety.
Administrative Penalties and Work Suspension
For a violation provided for by the law, a warning, a fine or the suspension of the work process may be applied. In the case of a warning or a fine, the supervision organ issues an instruction on rectifying the violation within a reasonable period — determined in consultation with the employer, the specialist and the employees' representative and recorded in a protocol. If the violation is not rectified in time, a fine is applied and an additional period granted; non-payment of the fine leads to a surcharge at double the fine amount and then to compulsory enforcement.
The strictest measure — suspension of the work process — is applied upon discovery of critical non-conformity, where non-observance of the norms endangers the life or health of an employee or a third party. The suspension decision is submitted to the court for confirmation: the supervision organ must present a motion within 24 hours of issuing the act — otherwise the suspension is deemed cancelled and the process restored. After the violation is rectified, the suspension must be cancelled within 24 hours, on the organ's own initiative or on application.
Fines for Obstruction and for Violating a Suspension Decision
Obstruction of the supervision organ's activity triggers fines: for a natural person with income under 100 000 GEL in the previous calendar year — 1 000 GEL; with 100 000 GEL or more — 2 000 GEL; for a VAT payer whose taxable operations over the previous 12 calendar months do not exceed 100 000 GEL — 2 000 GEL; from 100 000 to 500 000 GEL — 5 000 GEL; above 500 000 GEL — 7 000 GEL; for any other employer — 1 000 GEL. Repetition within one calendar year doubles the fine.
Non-fulfilment of a suspension decision is heavier: for natural persons — 2 000 and 4 000 GEL depending on income; for VAT payers — 4 000, 10 000 and 14 000 GEL by turnover group; for other employers — 2 000 GEL; on repetition — double. This is the numerical framework that shapes the risk attached to inspection.
How Our Lawyers Can Help
Preparing for inspection covers document discipline (training records, measurement protocols, insurance), building the 24-hour accident-notification procedure, and the rules of engagement with the supervision organ. Our team will help with a compliance audit, planning the fulfilment of instructions, appealing fine and suspension decisions, and representation in court.
Contact us through Legal.ge — we will assess your enterprise's readiness for inspection and build a defence position within the law's boundaries.