Emergency medical workers demanded a 100% salary increase. On May 27, 2022, they held a protest outside the Emergency Situations Coordination and Urgent Assistance Service office.

Their salaries were based on the number of 24-hour shifts — usually 7.5 per month. Senior doctors were paid 175 GEL per shift, with junior doctors earning less. From this amount, they also had to cover their insurance contributions. Protesters demanded a doubling of their pay.

On June 7, the workers organized a protest march from the Coordination and Emergency Assistance Center to the Ministry of Health, demanding additional compensation for overtime and hazardous work.

They stated that the pandemic bonuses they had received during COVID-19 were removed, even though their workload had not decreased. Those bonuses had partially compensated for their already low pay, and once removed — coupled with inflation — their salaries became insufficient relative to their workload.

During the protest, it was announced that a tripartite meeting would be held at 4 p.m. between medical staff, the Ministry of Health, and the Trade Union representatives.

The fight for higher wages continued for several months. On January 11, 2023, emergency doctors and drivers again took to the streets. Despite numerous protests and meetings with the Ministry of Health the previous year, their demands remained unchanged. Moreover, they said the employer and the state were “punishing” them for past protests — for example, instead of the full 100% annual bonus they had received in previous years, they were only paid 70% in December.

Protesters also claimed that to “discipline and humiliate” them, management had changed the rules for professional qualification exams, making it much harder to pass. Many doctors failed the new exams, allowing the employer not only to avoid raising salaries but also to dismiss some of them.

The Emergency Situations Coordination and Urgent Assistance Center responded the same day, denying that working conditions had worsened. It stated that in 2022, compensation for overtime on weekends was introduced and payment for weekday overtime was increased. They also noted that employees received three separate bonuses in 2022, and starting in early 2023, salaries were raised by 10%, in line with other public sector employees. The statement made no mention of the changed exam regulations.

On January 18, 2023, emergency workers spent the night inside the Coordination and Urgent Assistance Center building as a form of protest. They continued their sit-in afterward, but on the sixth day, security guards barred them from reentering the building. Members of the trade union joined them, and when the administration locked the entrance, three protesters remained trapped inside.

On July 4, 2023, another protest was held outside the Emergency Medical Training Center. Doctors, nurses, and drivers who had been demanding better pay and working conditions for months said that punitive measures had been taken against them. They claimed that around 200 workers across the country were deliberately failed on exams and unfairly dismissed, many of whom had been active participants in earlier protests.

After the July 4 protest, no further demonstrations were reported in the media.

On September 15, 2023, the Ministry of Health announced that, starting in October, the salaries of emergency medical brigade members and central dispatch staff would increase by 10%, with another 10% raise planned for 2024.