Former Cultural Heritage Agency employees speak of ‘repressive purge’

Former employees of the National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of Georgia speak of a “repressive purge” of personnel in the agency.

One of the first to dismiss employees from the agency was the restorer Ana Sherozia. On November 1, she wrote on Facebook that about 20 employees, including restorers, archaeologists, art historians, historians and others, were laid off in “another repressive purge” at the agency.

“Speaking specifically about me, from 2016 to the present, I have been the only restorer of archaeological and ethnographic materials in the agency (which includes 18 museums and museum-reserves),” she said.

According to Sheroziy, most of the fired employees are going to start a legal dispute to protect their rights, as well as “our heritage” and “science.”

Today, November 2, in an interview with the Formula TV channel, one of the dismissed employees stated that the dismissal order indicated the abolition of her service.

“This is a very harmful decision for the country as a whole, because institutional memory is being destroyed. When there is a desire for the state to develop, for the country to succeed, such decisions are simply incomprehensible to me, ”she emphasized.

Another employee fired from the agency called the next dismissal of employees of the institution “a merciless attack” and added that it “empties” the sphere “from professionals … removes them from business, neglects the knowledge, work, experience of people.” “It’s part of a single repressive system.”

Agency response

The National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage responded to reports of layoffs yesterday and stated that the optimization, which began on September 19 this year, has been completed, as a result of which the number of employees under the staffing table increased by 9 to 268, and the number of employees under labor contracts decreased by 22 to 150. In addition, the average salary for 24 staffing positions increased by 350 GEL, and the salary of a full-time employee is no less than 1,000 GEL.

In addition, according to the agency, in order to improve the management efficiency of the agency, 5 regional units for regular inspection of cultural heritage sites were created in the Monitoring Service, and 26 new employees were added.

According to the agency, the museums and museum-reserves under the agency were given more autonomy. In particular, they will “themselves develop and implement cultural, educational, tourism programs, the concepts of museum expositions, as well as prepare educational, scientific, informational publications and events related to museums / museum reserves.”