One of the most pressing issues for businesses today is labor relations and related legal requirements. The Labor Code of Georgia is the legislation regulating this relationship, which defines in detail all the conditions that an employer must include in an employment contract concluded with an employee.
An employment relationship is the performance of work for an employer by an employee in exchange for remuneration under the conditions of organizational labor regulation . An employment relationship arises on the basis of equality of the parties and an agreement reached as a result of the free expression of will, accordingly, an agreement is formed that regulates the relationship between the employer and the employee during the period of validity of the labor legal relationship.
The Labor Code defines in detail the conditions for an employee, such as the maximum amount of working time; vacation; leave due to pregnancy and childbirth, leave for caring for a child, leave for adoption of a newborn child and additional leave for caring for a child ; suspension of the employment relationship; termination of the employment relationship and other important issues.
According to Georgian legislation, labor relations have a supervisory body – the Labor Inspectorate , which has made a great contribution to the improvement of labor relations. During the inspection, the Labor Inspectorate identifies the shortcomings that were made during the conclusion of the contract, and checks whether the actual circumstances comply with the terms and conditions agreed upon in the contract and with the legislation.
In order for an entrepreneur to be prepared for an inspection by a supervisory authority, it is necessary for the employer to comply with the requirements of the legislation, including reflecting in the contract all the essential conditions that the legislator imposes.
Georgian legislation determines what content an employment contract should include, namely:
- Information about the parties to the contract
- Date of commencement of work and duration of employment relationship
- Working time and rest time
- Place of work and information about the employee’s various workplaces, if his permanent or main place of work is not determined
- Position and type or description of the work to be performed
- Remuneration (salary, as well as, if any, bonuses) and the procedure for its payment
- Overtime pay rules
- Duration of paid leave, duration of unpaid leave and procedure for granting such leave
- Procedure for termination of employment relationship between employer and employee
- Provisions of collective agreements − in the event that these provisions regulate the working conditions of employees differently.
In addition to the above, the employer has the opportunity to include in the contract reservations of such content that are the subject of agreement between the parties and at the same time do not contradict the applicable legislation. It is important for each employer to take into account that any reservation must be formulated in a way that is understandable to the parties in order to exclude any ambiguity, ensure that the terms of employment comply with the applicable legislation, and reflect the essential conditions specified by the legislation in the employment contract.
