Strike of thousands at Georgia’s major student employer

Demand of a pay raise and proper working conditions made more than 4,000 workers at Evolution Georgia, an online casino known for employing a large number of Georgian students, go on strike on July 12.
The company employs “about 16,000+ people in studios across Europe and North America,” half of which, up to 8,000 employees, could be working from “Evolution Georgia”, opened in 2018. They are mostly local students seeking employment to make ends meet.
The official wage policy reports that a full-time entry-level job as a game presenter can earn up to GEL 900 (USD 329) net per month for day shifts and GEL 1225 (USD 450) for night shifts.
But the workers say that the net hourly wages range from GEL 3 (USD 1) for shufflers to GEL 5 (USD 1.8) for game presenters, and an important part of their salaries consists of bonuses of GEL 300-400 (USD 110-145) per month that they could easily lose due to unforeseen circumstances. Workers have to sit upright for hours on uncomfortable chairs, under bright lights and cameras pointed at them, with poor air conditioning.
Launching strikes legally is notoriously complicated in Georgia, so, this one is called “historic.” The company management is trying to prevent the workers from joining the action. The Georgian Public Defender’s office has issued a statement citing widespread practices of employers resorting to “harassment of workers based on dissenting opinions, dismissals, or other types of violations of labor rights” when faced with worker dissatisfaction.
According to Evolution Georgia, the majority of workers continue to work.
Georgian workers struggle nationwide to secure better working conditions. Young people are also searching to protect their political and social rights.
Georgian students have never had an easy life, but the economic shocks of recent years made it even worse. It became more difficult to afford to study in Tbilisi for students hailing from outside the capital, which has led to repeated protests at Georgian universities.
Some observers have come to suggestion that the problem of Evolution Georgia goes far beyond the dimension of labor rights: thousands of students were flocking to gambling companies, due to lack of better alternatives.
According to Guro Imnadze of the Social Justice Center, a Georgian progressive NGO, working in online casinos, call centers, and similar fields leads to “exhausted, exploited, non-professional workers who have nowhere to go but to another similar sector that continues to exploit and exhaust such people”.
He reminds about the state’s responsibility to ensure the proper functioning of the labor market, which requires reforming education, vocational training, and student employment programs.

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