According to the Labour Code of Georgia, Chapter 5, Article 21, the worker has a right of at least 24 day paid vacation and at least 15 days of unpaid vacation per year. IDFI has studied the data of unpaid vacations of public servants. According to the data from 164 public authorities, 1 674 public servants had used their right for unpaid vacation within the period from 1^st January, 2012 to 1^st April 2013. 100 public servants were from the central and state minister offices of the ministries, 432– from the legal entities and sub-agencies, 1 077 – from the local governments (City Halls, Municipal Boards), and 65 - from other institutions.

According to the Labour Code, Chapter VI, Article 27, a worker has a right for pregnancy, maternity and child care leaves equal to 477 work days, out of which 125 work days are paid, in case of maternity problems or twins - 140 working day. Same Chapter Article 28 stipulates the same provisions in case of adoption of a child.

From 1^st January, 2012 to 1^st April 2013, paid maternity leave was taken by 1143 public servants, while there were unpaid cases of 345 public servants.

• Statistics on unpaid vacations of public servants in terms of gender

From 1^st January 2012 to 1^st April 2013, number of unpaid vacations for male public servants equals 731, whereas female equals 943. 

According to the types of public authorities, the number of female public servants that used unpaid vacation highly exceeds the number of male public servants that did so.  In the central and state offices of the ministries, the indicator of females that used unpaid vacation goes to 56 %, in legal entities and sub-agencies - to 65.9 %, and 51.8 % to local self–governments (City Halls, Municipal Boards)

• Statistics on public servants that exercised the right of paid maternity leave in terms of gender

According to Article 27 of the Labour Code of Georgia: “a worker can exercise maternity, pregnancy and child care leave on his//her request. The Article is vague in terms of men exercising the right to take a leave of absence except for child care provision. It is recommended to place a separate paragraph in case of “child care leave”. Therefore, IDFI observed this issue in terms of gender. The received data was unclear, as public authorities mostly consider this provision for women and the data is not accurate.

Out of information from 163 public authorities, only one case of a man exercising this right has been observed.

The information received from Chokhatauri Municipality indicated 8 cases when men exercised this right in line with the Labour Code, Article 22 provision. This Article foresees temporary labour disabilities which specified whether the right had been exercised due to the child care or labour disability.   

According to the type of public authorities, most cases, namely 655 cases, of exercising paid maternity leave were observed in legal entities and sub-agencies.

• Public servant statistics on unpaid maternity leaves in terms of gender

From 1^st January 2012 to 1^st April 2013, 345women applied for an unpaid maternity leave out of 163 public authorities. 

Although the Labour Code guarantees 126 working days paid maternity leave, the public servants took an unpaid maternity leave. According to the study, only 31 % of the servants applied for an unpaid maternity leave after a paid leave. In context of the types of public authorities, unpaid maternity leave indicators are as follows: