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Protest over the death of a young man at the workplace

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2018

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Protest date

February 14, 2018

Protest area

Tbilisi

Protest field

Social Problems

Protest forms

Demonstration, March

Protest cause

26-year-old worker dies at work

Organisers

Audience 115

Main demand

Addressee of the protest

Establish a labor inspection service and improve workplace safety

Protest target

Government

On February 14, 2018, the student movement Auditoria 115 held a protest in front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi, demanding the establishment of a labor inspection system and the enforcement of workplace safety standards.

The protest was sparked by another tragic incident — on February 9, 26-year-old Jarji Janjalashvili fell from the fifth floor of a construction site in Tbilisi and died. He was the 1,209th worker to have died on the job between 2011 and 2017.

Carrying banners reading “A city full of corpses,” “Rise up 1209,” and “Our silence kills workers,” students marched from Tbilisi State University to the Parliament, where they placed cardboard cutouts symbolizing the dead workers. On the Parliament steps, they spread a banner listing the names of deceased workers and spray-painted stencils. Police gave verbal warnings, telling them not to “disfigure the city.”

“The state, through its inaction, forces us to build killer buildings that demand workers’ lives as sacrifice!” — declared the protesters.

At the same time, Auditoria 115 held a parallel protest in Batumi, in front of the Adjara Government building.

Media

Figures and banners depicting workers who died on the job displayed in front of the Parliament

Figures and banners depicting workers who died on the job displayed in front of the Parliament

February 14, 2018. Photo: Thornike Mandaria, On.ge