The Parliament of Georgia is considering a draft law that changes the legal status of professional public servants employed in the Presidential Administration in an accelerated manner. The draft law transforms the professional public servants employed in the Presidential Administration into persons employed under administrative contract, which simplifies grounds for their dismissal. We believe that the mentioned legislative initiative violates the labour rights of the employees of the Presidential Administration, including the constitutional right of Georgian citizens to be protected from unjustified dismissal.

According to the draft law, professional public employees of the Presidential Administration shall be regarded as persons employed under administrative contract, which means that the term of their contract shall not exceed the president’s term of office. Furthermore, the President will be able to terminate a contract and employ new staff any time. It should be noted that as of today, only 5 persons are working in the Presidential Administration under administrative contracts. The authors of the draft law are expanding the mentioned circle, as a result of which, 102 other public servants performing permanent professional functions in the Presidential Administration will be put at risk. It should be noted that the explanatory note of the draft law does not specify how many people will be affected by the amendment. The mentioned information cannot prove the need for the amendment either. It is particularly concerning that the draft law was submitted to the Parliament several days before the new president’s inauguration.

According to the Constitutional Court of Georgia, paragraph 2 of Article 29 of the Constitution of Georgia includes “various legal components of unhindered performance of duties in the state service, including the safeguard against unjustified dismissal”. The draft law changes the status of the employees of the Presidential Administration without any justification, endangers unhindered performance of duties by them and creates unconditional grounds for their dismissal.

The Law on Public Service, which is planned to be amended, was adopted by the Parliament in 2015. According to the explanatory note, the aim of the law was to establish a politically neutral public service based on the principles of unity, impartiality and professionalism, which would serve any authorities, regardless of which political force would be in power; furthermore, employment in the public service was to be carried out in a long-term manner, in accordance with the prescribed duties and responsibilities. One of the objectives of the law was to form a transparent system of employment and promotion in the public service, which would exclude any form of nepotism, protectionism and bias.

The main essence of the administrative contract institution is to employ a citizen on the basis of public official’s personal political or professional views. The procedure of employment of a professional public servant is completely different from the employment under administrative contract. For this very reason, the circle of persons employed under administrative contract is limited and the Law on Remuneration in Public Service (Article 29, paragraph 1) stipulates that "the number of persons employed in the public institution under administrative contract shall not exceed 10% of the total number of staff”. The submitted draft law changes the status of professional public servants into servants employed under administrative contract without any justification and violates the principle, according to which, only small percentage of the total number of employees may be employed under administrative contract.

The Public Defender indicated the problem of employment of persons in the public service without competition in the 2015 report. With respect to the mentioned issue, the new Law on Public Service, which shrank the circle of people employed without competition and reduced the risks of arbitrary decision-making in the process of employment of public servants, was praised. We believe that the submitted draft law completely distances the Law on Public Service from its initial objectives and creates a dangerous precedent of the deterioration of existing standards.

Given all the above, we call on the lawmakers to consider the labour rights of professional public servants employed in the Presidential Administration, the right of Georgian citizens to be employed in the public service, as well as the values and principles of the new system of public service, and not to adopt the unconstitutional law.