Some 240 Georgian social workers are on strike

Across Georgia, about 240 social workers involved in protecting women and children have stopped their activities and announced an indefinite strike demanding to improve their working conditions, Raisa Liparteliani, a deputy chair of the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Georgia, told the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 25, employees of the Social Services Agency refused going to work in five cities of Georgia.

According to Ms Liparteliani, on March 25, the Agency employees throughout the country did not come out to work (the "Caucasian Knot" cannot verify whether social workers are on strike throughout the whole country).

"In total, there are about 240 such workers in the country, who run the cases of women and children exposed to violence. Each of them has about 100-150 cases per month. All these cases have been stopped for today," Raisa Liparteliani told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The strikers have split their demands into two groups: those related to the improvement of hard working conditions, and those aimed at creating efficient and instant services to the beneficiaries.

"First of all, the point is in salary. Today it makes 600 laris per month (242 US dollars) after taxation. But half of this amount is spent on travelling – they have to go by taxi to calls at any time of the day," Ms Liparteliani said, adding that social workers also demand to provide them with mobile phones, and increase salaries of lawyers, psychologists and other employees of the social service.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 26, 2019 at 02:02 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.