What is the problem? 

• There are unjustifiably different approaches towards maternity leave in the private and public sectors. Thus, violating equality. 
• Women don’t have adequate social guarantees in the private sector. Compensation during maternity leave is only one-time and amounts to GEL 1000;
• Due to the scarce and one-time compensation, women are forced to end maternity leave early, leave their child and go back to work;
• Ending maternity leave earlier than it’s supposed to happen disregards woman’s physical and emotional readiness to go back to labor relations; 
• Informal sector is unregulated. 

How can this problem be solved? 

The government shall have a clear vision of how to create a social security system suited for employees. After this, courage and a political solution to such a vision are needed.             

For example:

• Maternity leave shall be remunerated fully or in part by the government; 
• The government shall set the minimum base amount to be paid and the rest amount shall be compensated by the employer      

or

• Maternity leave shall be remunerated by the employer fully. 

What is noteworthy and should be mentioned? 

According to the draft of amendments to the Labor Code presented in public discussions in 2020, the employer shall have had to compensate 80% of the monthly salary during the maternity leave. The parliament rejected this part due to the negative position of the government. 

According to the statement of the Government:  

• „The state budget doesn’t have the resources for that and will not be able to mobilize such amounts in the near future”.  

Considering this official reason, we can deem: 

Establishing the responsibility of the employer along with the state budget for compensating the maternity leave, could be the most viable model of social security system for the state;              

• In this case, maternity leave will not burden only the state budget.      

The state can determine the types and shares of involvement of the employer taking into account existing circumstances. 

For example:

• The employers could be directly obligated to partly compensate for maternity leave 

or 

• The state could set forth the required minimum contribution in the state fund, that will finance compensation for maternity leave.       

As a result: 

• Women will get compensation equal to or close to their remuneration;
• Compensation of maternity leave will be approximated to international standards;  
• Employers will not be able to avoid the requirements under the law; 

Sometimes employer pays the full salary, however, requires the employee the one-time compensation from the government, which violates the law,      

But 

• In such cases, women are obliged to agree to these terms and do not refer to the labor inspection, because the salary is more than the compensation to be paid by the government; 

• Employers make other employees do the work the person on maternity leave has to perform and do not give such employees additional remuneration. 

As a result, the employer gets the GEL 1000 income, stability of the workforce, and the image of the concerned employer. All this is done at the expense of violating the interests of the employers.  

Under the existing regulation, the maximum monthly compensation of maternity leave for women in the private sector is as follows in numbers:  

• If a woman fully exhausts 183 days of maternity leave, the state will compensate GEL 1000 maximum, which amounts to GEL 167 in a month;
• If a salary of a woman is less than GEL 167 a month, she will get less than GEL 1000;
• Due to such scarce compensation, women are forced to go back to work earlier than they are supposed to.      

What is more to be gained by the proper compensation  for maternity leave? 

A woman will not be forced to end her maternity leave earlier than supposed to due to financial difficulties; 

• A woman will go back to work when she is physically and emotionally ready. Therefore, she will perform her duties better;       
• Employer will benefit as well from the productive work. 

What is the compensation for maternity leave of a public servant? 

• In the public sector 183 days of maternity leave are fully compensated;
• A woman might be compensated with a length-of-service increment and a rank salary in addition to his/her official salary. 

As a result, women public servants are in an abruptly better financial situation when fully using maternity leave, compared to others. 

The public defender of Georgia saw the violation of the right to equality with regard to the different approaches of compensation of maternity leave in the private and public sectors and appealed to the Constitutional Court of Georgia claiming its unconstitutionality. The claim substantiates that the existing regulation concerning the private sector is unconstitutional in relation to the freedom of labor and the right of mothers and children.  

What does the law say regarding the women employed in the informal sector and unemployed women? 

N183 Maternity Protection Convention of International Labor Organization and the 92/85/EEC Directive of the Commission of the European Union consider all women equally and set the minimum standard of protection despite their status of employment, sector, or type.   

However, in Georgia, the law doesn’t say anything about the women employed in the informal sector, self-employed women, or women in non-standard labor relations. This means that if a nanny, private teacher, outside vendor, cleaner or courier, etc. decides to have a child, the state will not support them. A lot of women are involved in this type of labor.  

One-time compensation of GEL 1000 doesn’t cover unemployed women, which exacerbates their economic situation. The state must create a social security system for supporting women working in the informal sector, involved in non-standard labor, self-employed and unemployed women. For this, the state must:  

• Fully register information on women's employment status; 
• Contribute to the formalization of the informal employment sector; 
• Ensure proper and adequate support.