September 3, 2018

Georgian media outlets report that tens of employees of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) have received proposals, according to which the terms of their employment contracts should be either changed or terminated. We suppose that this proposal is unjustified and may aim at dismissing tens of employees. Recent developments around GPB raise a number of questions and even the latest statement [released by GPB] does not provide answers to them.

Thus, the Coalition for Media Advocacy deems it necessary that GPB's management answers the following questions:  

• Who made the decision? The proposal notes that "by decision of the administration," hourly employment has been assigned to certain positions. It should be noted that the decision on staff policy is made by GPB's Director General. Therefore, it should be indicated who has made this particular decision and under what powers.
• How did GPB select the persons who received proposals? The fact is that only some employees received proposals. Therefore, the management should clarify the criteria for selecting these persons. It is unclear, if hourly employment was assigned to particular positions, why were not all persons working on the same positions offered similar terms of employment?
• Why should the public television move to hourly employment now and why does it cover only particular persons working on some positions? The public is still unaware about the principles and motives of GPB's decision to move to hourly employment. GPB's claims about low job attendance do not answer these questions. Apparently, neither GPB's Board of Trustees has comprehensive information about this issue; moreover, its inaction arises additional questions amid ongoing developments. 
• Why and how did the public television hire tens of new employees on these positions under old terms in 2017-2018 if it planned to move to hourly employment? An answer to this question is very important especially as the Georgian Public Broadcaster has no staffing schedule and pay rules approved by the Board of Trustees. Thus, the GPB Director General is not bound by regulations and can easily make decisions on such issues unilaterally.

  The Coalition for Media Advocacy calls on:

• GPB's Director General to refrain from making unjustified decisions; to develop along with all relevant units of the public television a fair and unbiased mechanism that will help assess staff qualification, and only afterwards make decisions on mass dismissals, if the need arises. The Georgian civil society has long been focusing on the necessity of staff optimization; however, this process should be pursued in a transparent, fair and well-justified manner.
• The Board of Trustees to pay attention to the processes ongoing in the public television; to demand the Director General to present a vision on staff policy and approve GPB's staffing schedule and pay rates as envisaged by the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting.    
• The Parliament of Georgia to pay attention to the situation at GPB and focus on the fact, why the Board of Trustees does not fulfill its obligations.