Georgia, Tbilisi, Oct.22 / Trend corr. N.Kirtskhalia /
Around 200 employees of Georgian Railways (GR) plan to hold a protest action on October 24.
According to one of the organisers, Ilya Lezhava, freight transport will be suspended for eight hours.
During the strike machinists and their assistants intend to demand an improvement of working conditions, security and higher wages from the GR administration.
Suspension of transport will be a first step and unless the administration takes measures, the railwaymen plan a more radical protest. Concrete plans will be made at a meeting on October 25.
According to Lezhava, the salary of a driver amounts to 900 lari with that of an engineering assistant at 600 lari, while the administration employees are paid up to 21,000 lari. The work schedule was not adjusted and operators and their assistants have to work almost the whole day, he said.
The official exchange rate is 1 GEL/0.6040 USD.