BUSINESS
GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 5 - 7, 2019
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Georgia Becomes Governing Council Member of Community of Democracies BY TEA MARIAMIDZE
G
eorgia has become the 30th member of the Governing Council of the Community of Democracies (CoD) which is an intergovernmental coalition of states established in 2000. The aim of the coalition is to bring together governments, civil society and the private sector in the pursuit of the common goal of supporting democratic rule, expanding political participation, advancing and protecting democratic freedoms, and strengthening democratic norms and institutions around the world. The CoD reports that they welcome Georgia as a new member of its Governing Council, explaining that the accession comes as an acknowledgment of the tangible progress made by Georgia in democratic development and is based on the review of quantitative indices ranking Georgia’s progress on its democratic journey, including the state of fundamental rights, political rights and civil liberties. CoD Secretary General Thomas Garrett stated that as a leader in democratic transformation in the region, strengthened by the commitment of the Georgian people to the values and standards of democracy, Georgia will add a valuable voice to the Community’s Governing Council. “I am very pleased to welcome Georgia
as a new Member State and look forward to working closely together within the CoD to promote, protect, and advance democracy worldwide,” he said. Georgia’s engagement with the Community of Democracies began with the adoption of the Warsaw Declaration by Georgia at the Community’s founding meeting in 2000 and has continued over the years with Georgia’s participation as an Observer at the Community’s 2002 Ministerial Conference and as Participant in all other Ministerial Conferences. Speaking at the Extraordinary Meeting of the CoD Governing Council held in September on the margins of the 74th UN General Assembly, Lasha Darsalia, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, underlined that Georgia, as a signatory of the Warsaw Declaration, is a strong supporter of the principles that underpin the Community of Democracies and is committed to upholding core democratic values enshrined in the Warsaw Declaration. The objectives of the 16th Sustainable Development Goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, which is actively supported and promoted by Georgia in the international arena, responds directly to the values of the Community of Democracies and occupies a central place in its work. The CoD was inaugurated at its first biennial ministerial conference hosted by the Government of Poland in Warsaw in June 2000. It provides a unique venue
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for countries that share democratic values to support each other and advocate globally on issues of mutual concern. The CoD Governing Council comprises member states that commit to abide by the common democratic values and standards outlined in the Warsaw Declaration and make tangible contributions to strengthening the Community of Democracies. The Governing Council cooperates with civil society and other
affiliated bodies of the CoD. The chairmanship of the CoD has been rotating since its establishment. Currently, the Governing Council of the Community of Democracies has 30 member states: Argentina, USA, Guatemala, United Kingdom, El Salvador, Estonia, India, Italy, Japan, Cape Verde, Canada, Republic of Korea, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Norway, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Hungary, Uruguay, Philippines, Finland, Sweden, Chile and Georgia. “The membership of Georgia will add to the diversity of the Governing Council, which includes Member States from most regions of the world and at different stages of democracy, providing a potential to draw on a wide pool of experiences and information sources to spur action and facilitate democratic solidarity,” the organization stated.
Georgian Trade Unions Request Defining GEL 320 as Minimum Salary BY TEA MARIAMIDZE
T
he minimum salary in Georgia may become GEL 320 (around $108.29) per month due to a legislative initiative submitted to Parliament by the Trade Unions last week. As of today, the minimum salary in the private sector in Georgia is set at GEL 20, around $6.77, while it is GEL 135 in the public sector ($45.69). It is the lowest minimum wage among the former Soviet Union countries. According to the bill, the minimum salary needs to be at least GEL 320 per month, which is 30% of the average wage, as per internationally accepted practice. “Given the economic situation in the country, the minimum wage is revised every year. Adoption of the law will affect 130,000 employees, or 15% of hired workers, who earn less than 320 GEL per month. After the registration of the bill, it will be necessary to collect 30,000 signatures and submit it to Parliament,” the Trade Unions said. Trade Unions of Georgia drafted the bill themselves and also conducted the relevant research with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. "Imposing a minimum wage in the country and periodically revising it will promote the principles of social justice and solidarity and prevent the exploitation of employees. As a result of the bill,
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particularly low-paid workers will see their income increased. This will enable them to earn more and help rid the country of poverty," the explanatory note reads. Raisa Liparteliani, the Deputy Chair of Trade Unions, told media that the minimum wage is calculated from the average salary set by the National Statistics Office (Geostat). However, she added that the method-
ology used by Geostat is controversial, but at the same time it is the only official data available in the country. “We all know that GEL 1068, which is the latest figure of the average salary in the country, is not the real average salary. There are whole sectors where monthly salaries do not exceed 300-400 GEL. On the other hand, this is the official average salary set by the state,”
Liparteliani says. Geostat uses arithmetic means to calculate average monthly salaries, but the median method is better used when the data significantly differs. The issue is that if only the salaries of the most highly paid people are raised, this does not affect the median salary, though it increases the mean salary. “We certainly have our concerns regard-
ing this methodology. Specifically, they do not calculate the median salary, and the average salary that Geostat has set starts with the top managers and ending with the lowest rank people,” Deputy Chair of the trade unions stressed. The bill also cites data from the Geostat data 2018 which shows that the country's poverty rate is 22.3%, which is 11.6% below the poverty line. As of August 2019, there were 23,526 people in the country who earned less than 100 GEL a month, 63,356 people had less than 200 GEL salaries, and 114,00 employees who had less than GEL 300. The National Statistics Office reports that in January-May 2019, Quarter 1, the average monthly earnings in Georgia increased by 33.5 GEL compared to the first quarter of the previous year and amounted to GEL 1092.7. However, the highest average monthly salary was observed in Quarter 3, 2018 and it was GEL 1202.2. Geostat says that in QI, 2019, the majority of sectors indicated an increase in the average monthly earnings compared to Quarter I of the previous year. As for the monthly earnings by gender, in the QI 2019 the average earnings equaled 876.1 GEL for women, while 1294.1 GEL for men and the annual growth of earnings amounted to 58.0 and 22.4 GEL, respectively. To note, the 2018 average monthly salary in Georgia, according to Geostat, was 1068.3 GEL ($359), which was a 6.9% increase compared to 2017.