Fine for Construction Violation May Increase to $12,000
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, February 20
(TBILISI) - Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced that his body has agreed with the government and parliament to increase fine for construction violations to 30,000 GEL ($12,000) without initial warming.
He stated that any violation will be fined, including not wearing a helmet.
Kaladze claims that the rule about high fines, which was accepted by the country’s economic team and the government, will reduce the number of fatal cases.
“The very first case of the construction violation will be fined 30,000 GEL. Now, if such a violation is detected, the construction company or the people in change receive warning. In the case of the repeated violation fine is 3,000 GEL ($1,200),” Kaladze said.
Kaladze also announced that if the construction was stopped due to violations and the company continued works regardless, they will be fined 50,000 GEL ($20,000).
Illegal constructions on the state land will be fined 25,000 GEL ($10,000) and on the private land-20,000 GEL ($8,000).
According to the official data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 270 workers died and 776 were injured in 2011–2016 at workplace.
In 2016, 58 people died and 85 were seriously injured as a result of occupational accidents.
18 were killed and 34 injured only in the first half of 2017.
On June 1, 2017, the work safety draft law was initiated in Parliament, though it has been adopted only in the first reading.
Georgian Ombudsman Nino Lomjaria believes that the country requires effective work safety legislative with relevant enforcement.
“The attitude shows that the labour safety has not yet become a priority for the Government,” Georgia’s Public Defender Nino Lomjaria wrote.
The Public Defender called on Parliament of Georgia to advantageously consider the draft law, taking into account severity of the problem, and take effective measures to protect life and health of employees.
