"Mikheil, a miner for 35 years, died along with three other miners on July 16, 2018, in an underground explosion in the Tkibuli coal mine, in Imereti, Georgia. He was 54 years old and left behind his wife and his son, also a miner. Mikheil's nephew, Pavle, only 25 years old, died with five others in another accident only two months before.
The Tkibuli tragedies bring into focus Georgia's much-needed labor reform, following a decade of deregulation that dramatically reduced labor rights and removed government oversight. In 2006, shortly after the Rose Revolution brought a pro-western president to power, Georgia abolished its Labor Inspectorate as part of sweeping economic reforms aimed at attracting investment to the country. Since then, according to one study, deaths at work have soared by 74 percent, mostly in mining and construction. Between 2007 and 2017, the average number of deaths at work per year in Georgia was 41, compared to an average of 24 deaths per year between 2002-2005. Even as the country took steps toward restoring some rules after 2013, the mining accidents in 2018 showed that the long-term impact of deregulation, which legitimized poor business practices on safety and labor rights, proved difficult to uproot.
Based on interviews with over 80 people, including workers in a coal and a manganese mine in Georgia and their families, trade unions, lawyers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), representatives of international organizations, representatives of the Labor Inspectorate and the Labor Ministry, and members of Parliament, this report finds that workers' safety in mines continues to be at serious risk due to insufficient regulation by the government and resulting mining practices that prioritize production quotas and put workers' safety in jeopardy. ..."

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ISBN (PDF) : 978-1-6231-37571