The FINANCIAL — Salaries of private sector jobs are considerably higher compared to those of civil servants in Georgia according to the National Statistics Office for 2010, based on 9 month estimates which assigns 512.5 and 670.2 GEL average salaries respectively for public and private sectors.
In addition overall salary increase was only the case in the private sector with 61.7 GEL whilst civil servants’ salaries remained the same or even decreased this year. (Geostat)
Despite the salaries that private sector employees enjoy, preservation of labour rights is more present in public service, notes the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation, with more comprehensive benefits of insurance and paid vacations, and pensions for civil servants.
The number of people involved in civil service amounts to 356,000 compared to the 304,000 people in private, the latest estimate from the Statistics Office showed. (The data was collected from 12,000 private and 4,500 state organizations)
As David Lee, CEO of AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce) told The FINANCIAL, civil service differs from the private sector mainly in terms of the amount of pay and promotion opportunities.
“The advantage of working in public sector jobs is the amount of training and support now given to state employees in ministries such as Finance, Economic and Development, Education and Science, Agriculture, etc. There is a push now for E-governance so the whole system and those who work in it are getting resources and training,” Lee said to the FINANCIAL.
“On the other hand the advantages of working in the private sector are that usually the salaries are higher and, depending on the job, often opportunities to be promoted and make more income are present,” noted Lee.
“The sector most active in employment purposes across the country is now probably tourism/hospitality and also the sector of agribusiness. In the long-term, I see jobs in the agribusiness, hydropower, ICT sectors growing.” Lee said.
As George Jikia, having 3-4 years of experience working in the private sector, told The FINANCIAL, even in the private sector there are so called sub-divisions, employers who pay high salaries and those who pay their employees relatively low wages.
“In the past I have held various positions: there were ones which provided no pay rise at all but also ones that paid a lot (including bonuses, yearly pay increases and other benefits). In general salaries are increasing in the private sector if we compare 2003/04 when 200 USD was considered the average salary, compared to today’s 500 USD,” said Jikia.
“When I was involved in the private sector working for an advertising company, the terms of pay were strictly prescribed together with a bonus system and other benefits. For instance if our team succeeded in cooperation with companies (meaning selling our service), then the group was given 10% of the contract. If I personally had achieved it then I would get 15% just for myself. It depended also on the size of the contract, if it was over 5,000 USD then our cut was about 7-8% whilst for a contract of over 20,000 USD – 15%,” Jikia said.
“Currently I’m working for an NGO with its own specific ways of pay as everything is approved/prescribed by the project but there are some other fringe benefits as well,” Jikia told The FINANCIAL.
Despite those salary differences between the two sectors, protection of labour rights is more present in the public sector than in the private sector – reads an official response from the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC) given below.
As in the public sector: According to the Civil Service Code of Georgia (108 article), an employee should be notified upon the abolishment of the service he/she works for, also upon a cut in staff, or lacking certification at least a month before. Hence they’re obliged to give compensation of 2 month’s salary, which is obligatory in line with (article 109).
In addition, upon prolonged inability to work, an employer is obliged to notify an employee about their firing at least 2 weeks in advance. In case of abrogation of these conditions then the employer is obliged to give compensation and reimburse any additional work day.
By the same token, an employee can’t be fired if he/she is on leave, or during the mobilization of army reserves, etc. Also a female employee can’t be fired if she has a baby under 3 years of age, even if there are cuts in staff or similar reasons for her dismissal.
As opposed to the civil service, in the private sector the law doesn’t envisage prior warning upon the abolishment of labour relations with an employee. What’s more, upon the unilateral ceasing of the contract by an employer, the latter isn’t obliged to cite the reason for firing the employee. (Labour code 37-38th articles)
In contrast with the civil service, private sector jobs can be characterized by short term contracts without any restriction. (Article 23)
In the private sector leaves taken for the reasons of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, also for the adoption of a newborn, are compensated by the state budget, according to the rule prescribed by the legislation. Employer and employee may agree on additional compensation.
Despite the fact that there are greater mechanisms in the public sector to ensure labour rights, still in practice there are frequently cases of mass lay-offs which ultimately lead to equal chances of exposure to risk in both private and public sector jobs (employees rights are under frequent violation).
It’s quite often the case when both in the private and public sectors employees appeal to us for help for cases such as: low compensation, one-sided agreement, absence of leave, absence of compensation for maternal leave, over-time work, short-term contracts, sometimes even salaries that aren’t paid on time or being in debt, and lastly regarding lay-offs which is the hardest nut to crack.
The positives of the private sector are that the private sector always adapts to the fast changing economic environment, in the case of cutting production or bringing innovations in terms of technologies.
The decision making process is faster and more perfected in the private sector but in spite of this flexibility, the recent crisis has demonstrated mass lay-offs to have been more present in private sector than in public sector jobs. Hence employers exerted their influence by cutting their salaries and not meeting their commitments to their employees.
There are various problems connected with the economy on the whole, even taking the subsistence level into account which was increased from 128 to 140.9 this year, the latter being less than enough for people’s normal day-to-day living considering the fact that inflation was 9-20% on consumer products this year, especially in the last month.
With regards to work safety standards, Georgian legislation doesn’t differentiate between the responsibility of private or public sector employers. Hence both sectors should provide and ensure basic safety standards at work. In addition there are special types of enterprises where safety standards are kept at the top of the list of priorities, such as mining and other industries in Georgia. (According to the law about technical threat control)
This year only, 23 people were victims of fatal occupational injuries whilst during the last four years there were 140. Most of the deceased were employed in construction or mining. It’s also been noted that from this year’s figure only one accident belonged to a state enterprise.
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