Employment of 155 People Terminated in Tbilisi City Hall over a Period of One Month
On September 8, 2014, The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) requested access to information from Tbilisi City Hall on individuals dismissed from the city hall’s various departments from August 1, 2014 through September 7, 2014.
According to the information provided, employment of total of 155 people was terminated in Tbilisi City Gall during the period from August 1, 2014 through September 7, 2014, including 115 resigned for personal reasons, 32 dismissed for expiration of contract, 5 dismissed for disciplinary liability and 3 based on other grounds.
Out of 115 people who resigned for personal reasons, 45 were employed at the municipal security service, 34 at the municipal administration, 9 at the municipal supervision service and 26 at various municipal departments of Tbilisi.
Employees who resigned for personal reasons include heads and deputy heads of municipal services/departments, lead specialists, as well as municipal chiefs of staff, chiefs of staff of Mayor’s office, contractors, head and deputy heads of the City Hall’s administration, and others.
Notably, Tbilisi City Hall refused to reveal identities of dismissed employees, stating that their names constituted personal information, except for former Gamgebelis of Districts of Tbilisi Municipality City Hall.
As you may recall, together with partner organizations ISFED released a statement on September 12, 2014, on reports of dismissals of public servants from Tbilisi City Hall on alleged political grounds (link), saying that according to reports, “since early August 2014, together with other employees of Tbilisi City Hall [public servants] have been constantly subjected to pressure to force them into “willingly” leaving their jobs. They have also stated that these illegal actions are perpetrated with the involvement of heads and deputy heads of various departments of Tbilisi City Hall, citing their political views as grounds for dismissal. They are also threatened with criminal prosecution… This creates a reasonable doubt that in some cases public servants in Tbilisi City Hall are openly or covertly pressured into resignation, with recently appointed officials acting outside the scope of their powers and disregarding stipulations of law. Article 169 of the Criminal Code qualifies “coercion into writing a letter of voluntary resignation from work” as crime.