Series of Illegal Dismissals in Khelvachauri Region

Series of Illegal Dismissals in Khelvachauri Region

Badri Dolidze, head of the Khelvachauri local Department on Economic Affairs was dismissed from his post. The regional administration explains this dismissal by the return of old staff member Eduard Goradze’s from a term-less leave. Goradze was not on leave however...

“A courier brought me the dismissal order. The motivation seemed vague to me;   ‘Badri Dolidze is to be released from his temporary post as head of the regional Department on Economic Affairs due to Eduard Goradze‘s return,’” the order read. “The job was not temporal but a permanent one…” Dolidze stated.

Dolidze came to this position through a competition and worked there for several months. How he became ‘temporary’, Dolidze explains such: “It seems the regional administration wrote some internal orders, according to which the permanent place of duty was changed into a temporary one.”

Eduard Goradze had been dismissed from the post before the competition. He appealed against this dismissal and despite the fact that the case was still before court a competition took place for the function. According to Goradze the position was not vacant, therefore it could not have related to it. Eduard Goradze takes the position of head of the Economic Department according to a court decision at the moment.

Goradze connects his dismissal to the interests of some people: “Everything was arranged artificially, they began to persecute me in order to hide their faults.” Now, the regional administration, which is trying to prove that Goradze was lawfully dismissed, is has brought the case before the Court of Appeal. Meanwhile, Dolidze's case remains in the regional court.

According to Iakob Kabaria, head of the regional Judicial Department, “We were obliged to execute the court order to return Goradze to his function. It is true that Dolidze was appointed to the position of head of department without term, but after we got court order, Dolidze was informed about the position change and the order concerning his replacement was written.” The fact is that Dolidze has never seen this order. 

Since summer, about 40 workers have been illegally dismissed in the Khelvachauri region. They applied the court and through its decision, they were taken back on their positions and refunded.

Maka Malakmadze from Batumi