More than 4,000 workers at Evolution Georgia, an online casino known for employing a large number of Georgian students, went on strike on July 12, demanding a pay raise and proper working conditions.
The strike follows longstanding concerns about working conditions for the mostly student staff and recent scandalous chat leaks in which managers allegedly belittled company workers.
“A strike is happening,” said Evo Union, a trade union formed by the company’s workers two years ago, as strikers gathered near the company’s Tbilisi headquarters. A long list of demands includes wage hikes, including 100 percent growth for certain positions such as game presenters and shufflers, annual inflation adjustments, the addition of tipping options for customers, and better health conditions such as improved insurance and the right to menstrual leave. Workers also demand more breaks during shifts, lifting obstacles to paid and unpaid leave and a safer and more decent working environment.
Evolution is an international gaming company that positions itself as a leader “in B2B online casino services delivered to our customers’ players via multiple channels and devices.” The company says it employs “about 16,000+ people in studios across Europe and North America,” half of which, up to 8,000 employees, could be working from Georgia, where the company started operating in 2018 as “Evolution Georgia.”
Most Georgian staff is known to be made up of local students seeking employment to make ends meet.
Evolution Georgia has been actively recruiting as a “first job” provider. According to the official wage policy, a full-time entry-level job as a game presenter – the most common position – can earn up to GEL 900 (USD 329) net per month for day shifts and GEL 1225 (USD 450) for night shifts. The company promises other perks, such as paid breaks, health insurance, and bonuses.
But the workers say the reality is more grim. The net hourly wages range from GEL 3 (USD 1) for shufflers to GEL 5 (USD 1.8) for game presenters, and bonuses of GEL 300-400 (USD 110-145) per month make up an important part of their salaries. However, these could easily be lost due to unforeseen circumstances, such as workers ending a shift early because they feel unwell. The chances of malaise are high. Workers have reported stressful routines of sitting upright for hours, in uncomfortable chairs, under bright lights and cameras pointed at them. They have also complained about poor air conditioning, filthy and unhygienic offices, and management’s insensitivity to workers’ health concerns and emergencies.
And there are reportedly situations where toxicity manifests itself in its literal sense.
“Workers have to work in the dust and overbearing smell of glue and paint” amid the ongoing renovations, a union representative told Mautskebeli online media. They cited several cases in which management forced workers to continue working despite these adverse conditions.
Strike – at last
Georgia’s labor legislation has improved in recent years, but launching strikes legally is notoriously complicated. Yet, as cases multiplied, discontent grew, and negotiations with management failed, the Union launched a strike that its representatives called “historic.”
Still, the Union members say the company management is pressuring the workers not to join the action. In a statement responding to the strike, the Georgian Public Defender’s office cited 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.
Evolution Georgia has downplayed the levels of discontent, claiming the majority of workers continued to show up for work.
“Unfortunately, we have not come to an agreement, which has now led some of our employees to initiate the strike. However, the absolute majority of our employees continue to work,” the company said in its July 12 statement, adding that it “will continue following a well-established process and act by local law and all applicable regulations.”
Going Nowhere?
The strike is part of a more protracted struggle by Georgian workers nationwide to secure better working conditions. But it also follows a broader pattern of young people uniting to protect their political and social rights. In this sense, the active, and to many unexpected, mobilization of youth to protest the Russia-inspired foreign agent’s law this spring may have been just the tip of an iceberg.
Life for Georgian students has never been easy, but the economic shocks of recent years made it even worse. Soaring inflation and drastic rent increases have made it difficult for students hailing from outside the capital to afford to study in Tbilisi, where most Georgian universities are located. Discontent has led to repeated protests at Georgian universities.
However, the recent controversies surrounding Evolution Georgia have led some observers to suggest that the problem goes far beyond the dimension of labor rights. Having few alternatives, thousands of students were flocking to gambling companies, an employment that many believe wears them out while adding little in terms of career prospects.
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,” Guro Imnadze of the Social Justice Center, a Georgian progressive NGO, wrote on Facebook on July 4.
Imnadze points to the state’s responsibility to ensure the proper functioning of the labor market, which requires reforming education, vocational training, and student employment programs. “Evolution [Georgia] is a horror, but let us not forget that it is part of a greater horror,” he adds.
