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Fired Customs Department Staff Brings Case against Zurab Antelidze

May 17, 2005

Fired Customs Department Staff Brings Case against Zurab Antelidze


The lawyers of the NGO Article 42 of the Constitution are defending the interests of former employees of the Customs Department who were unlawfully dismissed by the Chairman of the Department Zurab Antelava.

21 former employees have filed a claim in court against the chairman of the Department. They demand that his orders be revoked, to be restored to their positions, and to be provided with reimbursements.

The lawyers and the plaintiffs believe that the firings were unlawful. The matter is related to the incidents of illegal activity at the Red Bridge customs checkpoint before April 19-22. At that time, the officials of the Department said that only those who violated the law were dismissed. Despite this, some employees who did not work during this period were also dismissed, four of whom were on sick leave. The Labor Code clearly states that it is illegal to dismiss a person when he is ill.

It must be noted that the fired workers didn’t see any of the documents which had caused their dismissal. Therefore, the Order on dismissal of the Customs Department staff signed on 28 of April 2005 by the Chairman of the Customs Department of the Finance Ministry of Georgia is unlawful, because the workers had not violated their duties, nor had they been insubordinate.

The Order of the Customs Department of the Finance Ministry, dated April 21, 2005, is illegal as well. According to this Order, the Finance Police of the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Constitutional Security of the Interior Ministry of Georgia exposed facts of illegal activity, based on which, as of 18 April 2005, the staff of the Red Bridge customs checkpoint of the regional Customs “The West” had been dismissed.

The thirty fired workers applied to the World Customs Organization, the headquarters of which is in Brussels, Belgium, to defend their rights and asked it to lobby for them at the Customs Department of Georgia in order to get their jobs back.

“Article-42 of Constitution”

 

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