Protest of Workers Employed at Kobuleti Autobahn Construction

Maka Malakmadze, Adjara

People working on the construction of Kobuleti roundabout – so-called autobahn request improved working conditions and increased salaries. Chinese company Sino Hidro is implementing construction activities. Company representatives do not comment on the fact.

About 300 workers have been on strike for two days. They chose this form of protest to request improved working conditions and increased salaries. Protesters state they work more than 9 hours per day and officially their daily wage is 14 lari. However, they receive much less in fact. Workers do not have days-off.

Enver Beridze, employed at the autobahn construction: “When I signed salary document, I saw my salary was 600 lari according to it; though they paid only 290 lari to me. When I inquired why I had received so little, they said I had to ask our authority the reason; the employers said the government is taking money from them. They pay us salary in cash.”

Mamuka Surmanidze, employed at the autobahn construction: “We do not have even insurance. If somebody is injured, they will send him home. One of us fell off the bridge, injured his ribs but nobody reimbursed his medical treatment; simply employers sent him home.”

Ramaz Evliadze, employed at the autobahn construction: “When Ramaz Nikolaishvili arrived to see the ongoing construction, employers warned us not to complain about salaries, food and uniforms with him; however, our labor contracts state we have uniforms and they provide us with one meal. In fact, we have nothing! We work without rubber boots in rainy days.”

Rati Putkaradze, employed at the autobahn construction: “They give us swamp water to drink. When senior officials visit the construction, they give us normal water. We have only 30 minutes to have dinner. It is our break. We do not have a day-off either.”

Workers on strike are not going to stop their protest. They request improved working conditions and increased salaries. Administration of the Chinese company Sino-Hidro did not get interested in their requirements. Strikers said nobody had met them. Company representatives did not comment on the fact with journalists either.

Next day of their strike, deputy head of management group Levan Khukhuneishvili and Kobuleti district governor Tengiz Zoidze met workers.

Levan Khukhuneishvili: “Workers’ requests are completely fair. They work in unbearable conditions. We try to get hold of a copy of their labor contract. The employees claim there is no seal on the documents either.”

Tengiz Zoidze: “Governmental commission is created to study all existing problems – not only working conditions of these people, but also their labor contracts. All their requirements must be properly studied and discussed.”

Employees at the construction of the Kobuleti autobahn claim their labor contracts are not sealed by the company. Some of them do not have even copies.

The length of the autobahn is 12 kilometers and 400 meters. The construction shall finish next spring. Total price of project is 115 million lari.