The court has upheld two more lawsuits against the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation
On April 30 and May 7, 2026, the Tbilisi Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the court of first instance, ruling that the dismissals of Maia Cholokashvili and Giorgi Misriashvili from the LEPL National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation were unlawful. The court ordered the defendant to pay compensation for forced idle time.
Maia Cholokashvili had been working at the Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation since 2011, and Giorgi Misriashvili since 2008.
On November 25, 2021, following the appointment of Thea Tsulukiani as the Minister of Culture, a reorganization began at the agency with the stated purpose of verifying employee competence. Notably, a test in general skills and mathematics was scheduled to verify the competence of the agency's staff. There were no professional questions on the test, and no minimum passing threshold for competence verification had been established.
The plaintiffs successfully passed both the testing and interview stages. However, along with other employees, Giorgi Misriashvili was dismissed from his job without any justification, while those who remained, including Maia Cholokashvili, were signed to new contracts. Nevertheless, this also turned out to be temporary; a new wave of purging staff deemed unacceptable to the new minister began again through reorganization 9 months later, in 2022. During this wave, on January 15, 2022, employees were dismissed once again, with the justification given that their competence did not align with their positions. Maia Cholokashvili was also caught up in this wave of personnel purging.
It is worth noting that during neither reorganization were field professionals present at the interview processes. Instead, individuals who were not representatives of the field participated in the commission as invited experts; they were mostly lawyers who asked general questions completely unrelated to the plaintiffs' professional activities. Furthermore, no audio or video recording of the interviews was conducted.
ISFED’s attorney, Teona Kiladze, represented the plaintiff's interests in court.
ISFED continues to protect citizens' interests in labor disputes to ensure a fair and non-discriminatory working environment. If you believe you were dismissed from your job on political grounds, please write to us at: info@isfed.ge