Inside Georgia's textile industry

For a year, Investigative journalist Tamuna Chkareuli studied the conditions in various garment factories in the capital and the regions. She went undercover to see garment factories inside and out. She spent several days side-by-side with workers, pressing buttons to trousers for eight hours, in a small, dusty, and hot workshop.
To fit in, she had to invent a solid legend, change her outlook, and disappear from social media.
Based on the study the answers to the questions remain a challenge: Will Georgia’s newly passed labour bill, that envisions a broader mandate for the labour inspectorate, bring the significant change? Or will an attitude of ‘attracting investments’ and ‘creating jobs’ at the expense of people’s well-being continue? Can Georgia break the vicious cycle of labour rights abuse?

A Journalistic Investigation by Tamuna Chkareuli

OC Media, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Tbilisi, 2020