News: 'The State’s Double Standard in Related to the Employed Women' All News

The double standard is the combination of the principles that have stricter and disadvantaged attitude towards one group of individuals in comparison with the other groups.

The problem of double standard still exists in Georgia in terms of protection of the women’s rights and women employed in the private sector encounter the unfairness of double standard on a daily basis. According to Article 111 of the Law of Georgia on Civil Service a civil servant (a woman) may not be dismissed from the service during pregnancy or for up to three years during the child-raising period due to the following reasons:

• staff reduction
• long-term incapacity
• health condition
• results of Certification

However, it should also be noted that the similar norm is not foreseen by the Labor Code of Georgia. Thus, the question arises as to how fair it is that the above privilege applies only to women working in the civil service.  

The women working in the private sector receive up to 1000 Gel from the State during the maternity leave, while the women employed in the civil sector, alongside the above State aid receive the additional compensation during the maternity leave in order to supplement the wage gap.  In this regard, the Women working in the private sector are in a disadvantageous position, since they only receive the aid up to 1000 Gel. As for the amount to be received during the leave, it depends on the good will of the employer. If the employer refuses to issue the compensation, the employee is left with only 1000 Gel aid throughout the whole maternity leave.

It is worthwhile mentioning that the civil servants and the women employed in the private sector pay the taxes equally (income tax – 20%) and obey the law, however, the amount they equally input in the state treasury is later unevenly distributed among them.

In the framework of the research “Gender Discrimination in Labor Market in Georgia” 1361 employees were interviewed all over Georgia. According to the above survey, 53.3% of the employees in the Georgian labor market is employed in the private sector.  40.6% of the total number of employees is employed in the public sector. According to the results of the survey, 64% of the women note that despite their wish to enjoy the maternity leave, they were not able to use the maternity leave for the duration prescribed by law. 67% of the interviewed women consider that they were dismissed from work due to the maternity leave. 94% of the respondents left work on their own will. The above data clearly indicates that women employed in Georgia cannot fully enjoy the rights and guarantees provided by the Georgian legislation.