Tbilisi Cleaning Service workers held rally
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Thursday, December 31
Employees of Tbilisi Cleaning Service held a rally at the office of Tbilservice, the employer company. According to protesters, they are demanding that their full salaries be paid.
As the protesters say, they have not completely received their 13th annual salary, and they were pressured by Tbilservice representatives not to hold the protest.
“We work in very bad conditions, we have a very low salary and the uniforms that we wear are also so old that they cannot be properly washed. We will not get back to work until our demands are fulfilled,” stated protesters.
The head of the Tbilservice legal department, Davit Chankseliani, stated that the employees were not supposed to receive their so-called 13th annual salary, as instead they received bonuses. However, as he stated, some portions of pay was withheld from the employees, due to some disciplinary offenses.
“Overall, Tbilservice has 4, 000 employees and all of them have received their salaries. Also, a bonus at the end of the year was received approximately by 3, 700 employees. The others had violations in their disciplinary conduct, and according to our articles of association, they should not receive their bonus. However, administration allocated money for their bonuses regardless, but it was not the full amount as received by the other 3,700 employees, and this has sparked the protests,” stated Chankseliani.
As for the pressure on the protesters, Chankseliania denies the fact.
“They are pointing at one of our regional heads, Davit Burchuladze. All he did was tell them to get back to work, after which the protesters stated that they were under pressure,” stated Chankseliani.
He also stated that there will be no problems of cleaning the city, since only a minority of employees are on strike. Chankseliani also said that the rally was provoked by certain groups.
“The groups of Cleaning Service keep working in the city. The number of protesters is about 30, and such a low number cannot create any kind of problems to our company’s working process,” stated Chankseliani.
