“Words are valued by actions, and actions – by results!”
During the reporting period, the Legal Department of ESFTUG handled 31 court cases in district, city, appellate, and supreme courts, involving claims by 40 employees. All cases were concluded successfully:
1. Twelve court cases involved teachers, including disputes concerning errors identified in teacher competency exam tests. As a result of court decisions, three teachers were awarded additional credit points and granted higher professional status.
2. At Tbilisi Public School No. 24, the dismissal of three teachers by the school principal, Giorgi Kakabadze, was ruled unlawful by all three court instances. The school was ordered to pay a total of 120,000 GEL in compensation.
3. The dismissal of 21 assistant caregivers in the Tsalenjikha Municipality was declared unlawful by all court instances, resulting in nearly 200,000 GEL in total compensation.
4. Two teachers’ cases were resolved in their favor by the Court of Appeals.
5. ESFTUG lawyers represented members in 19 school disciplinary board hearings, two of which resulted in unfair decisions due to subjective factors.
6. With the active involvement of Giorgi Khosashvili, Head of the Legal Department, a five-year-long dispute at the Poti court ended in a mutually agreed settlement.
7. Some schools faced issues regarding the overlap of maternity and summer leave payments. ESFTUG addressed the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health, and Social Affairs of Georgia in writing. The Ministry’s written clarification resolved the issue in favor of the teachers.
Under the leadership of Giorgi Khosashvili, the ESFTUG Legal Department continues to actively provide legal consultations and defend the rights of its members at both school and institutional levels. Topics include disciplinary actions, sick leave, maternity leave, unpaid leave, teaching hours, and more.
Although the union has limited legal means to intervene directly in the distribution of teaching hours among teachers, several cases were identified, and with the involvement of the ESFTUG legal team, unfair distributions were successfully corrected to be more equitable.