Leave rules in Georgia: annual, unpaid and other leave under the Labour Code

The table lists the Labour Code figures people look up most often. Leave lengths in the Code are minimums: a contract may give more days, not fewer (Labour Code, Art. 31(4)). Every figure comes from the consolidated version of 16 September 2026 on matsne.gov.ge. Civil servants follow a different law, covered in its own section below.

Paid annual leave is at least 24 working days a year (Labour Code, Art. 31(1)). That is a floor: a contract may set more days but not fewer, because its terms must not make the employee’s position worse (Art. 31(4)). A contract clause by which the employee gives up annual paid leave is void (Art. 31(6)).

Additional paid leave

An employee doing heavy, harmful or hazardous work gets 10 extra calendar days a year (Art. 31(3)(a)). Which jobs qualify is set by separate legislation (Art. 45(8)). The list was approved by Order №147/ნ of the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of 3 May 2007, last consolidated on 11 November 2020. A separate occupational-safety list is in Government Resolution №381 of 27 July 2018 on work involving increased danger and heavy, harmful or hazardous conditions.

The Code grants extra leave in two more cases:

• once, up to 15 calendar days, after taking part in measures under martial law, a state of emergency or an emergency situation (Art. 31(3)(b));
• 30 calendar days after a peacekeeping rotation ends and the employee returns to Georgia (Art. 31(3)(c)).

The right to request leave arises after 11 months of work, although by agreement with the employer leave can be granted earlier (Labour Code, Art. 32(1)).

• From the second year of work, by agreement, leave can be taken at any time in the working year (Art. 32(2)).
• By agreement, leave can be split into parts; the Code sets no minimum length for a part (Art. 32(3)).
• Unless the contract says otherwise, the employer sets the order in which people take paid leave during the year (Art. 32(5)).

What counts toward the 11 months

Time actually worked counts, and so does forced idle time caused by the employer (Art. 34(1)). Unjustified absence does not count, nor does unpaid leave longer than 7 working days (Art. 34(2)).

How far in advance to ask

The Code sets no notice period for requesting paid leave (Arts. 31–36). The length of leave and the procedure for granting it are essential terms of the employment contract (Art. 14(1)(h)), and the employer may also set them in the internal work regulations (Art. 23(2)(d) and (e)). Look for the notice period in your contract and internal regulations.

Leave can be carried over to the next year if taking it this year would harm the normal course of work and the employee agrees (Labour Code, Art. 35(1)). Two limits apply: a minor’s leave cannot be carried over (Art. 35(1)), and no one’s leave can be carried over two years in a row (Art. 35(2)).

Falling sick during leave

A period of temporary incapacity for work, that is, sickness, does not count as leave (Art. 32(4)). Nor do maternity, childcare or adoption leave count toward annual leave (Art. 32(4)).

A public holiday inside your leave

The Code lists the public holidays itself (Art. 30(1)), and the Government may add more (Art. 30(3)). Paid leave is counted in working days (Art. 31(1)), and a public holiday is not a working day (Art. 30(1)). Reading the text this way, a public holiday that falls inside a leave period is not a leave day, and the leave runs one day longer. For example, if 26 May falls within 10 working days of leave, you return to work a day later. This is an inference from the text, not a separate rule in the Code, so write it into the contract or the internal regulations as well.

The Code calls unpaid leave “leave without pay” and sets a minimum of 15 calendar days a year (Labour Code, Art. 31(2)).

Before taking unpaid leave, the employee must warn the employer 2 weeks in advance (Art. 33). The exception is when urgent medical need or family circumstances make advance notice impossible (Art. 33).

No pay is due for those days unless the law or the contract says otherwise (Art. 46(2)(k) and Art. 46(4)). Unpaid leave longer than 7 working days does not count toward the 11 months that open the right to annual leave (Art. 34(2)).

Our free unpaid leave request puts the dates, the calendar days and the notice on one page.

Leave pay is based on the average pay of the 3 months before the leave (Labour Code, Art. 36). There are two exceptions:

• if you have worked less than 3 months since starting the job or since your last leave, the average of the months worked is used (Art. 36);
• if you receive a fixed monthly salary, the last month’s salary is used (Art. 36).

Do bonuses count? The Code treats as remuneration any payment the employee receives for work, in cash or in kind (Art. 41(1)). Reading the text this way, bonuses and allowances paid for work in the last 3 months count toward the average (Arts. 36 and 41). This is an inference, not a separate rule.

Daily rate. The Code gives no formula for turning the monthly average into pay for leave days (Art. 36). Write the formula into the contract or internal regulations and apply it to everyone in the same way.

When it is paid. The Code sets no separate deadline for leave pay. As a general rule, pay is issued at least once a month (Art. 41(3)). An employer who delays any remuneration or settlement owes 0.07% of the delayed amount for each day of delay (Art. 41(4)). On our reading of the text, this also covers leave pay and compensation for unused leave.

Cash instead of leave. The Code does not provide for replacing paid leave with money while the employment continues. It pays out unused leave in one case only: when the employer ends the contract (Art. 31(5)). A clause waiving annual paid leave is void (Art. 31(6)), so an agreement to “sell” leave for money may be held void. That last point is also an inference from the text.

The Labour Code gives separate leave for pregnancy and childbirth, for childcare and for adoption. These periods are not part of annual leave (Art. 32(4)), and the paid days are funded from the state budget (Art. 39).

• Paid leave for pregnancy and childbirth is 126 calendar days, or 143 days after a complicated birth or the birth of twins (Art. 37(1)).
• The employee divides these days between the periods before and after the birth as she chooses (Art. 37(2)).
• Childcare leave is 604 calendar days (587 after a complicated birth or for twins); 57 of them are paid (Art. 37(3)).
• Notice before childcare leave is 2 weeks (Art. 37(5)).
• On adopting a child under one year old, leave is 550 calendar days from the child’s birth; 90 of them are paid (Art. 38).
• A person caring for a child under five gets an additional 12 weeks of unpaid leave, taken at once or in parts, but at least 2 weeks a year (Art. 40).

Fathers’ rights

The Code has no separate “paternity leave” (Arts. 37–40). Childcare leave, however, can be used in whole or in part by either the mother or the father (Art. 37(4)). Leave for pregnancy and childbirth is the mother’s right, but the father may take the days the mother has not used (Art. 37(4)).

Who pays

These leaves are paid from the state budget, and the amount of the benefit is set by Government resolution (Art. 39). Under Government Resolution №33 of 24 January 2023, the benefit is capped at 2,000 GEL in total (Resolution №33, Art. 1). The resolution applies to relationships arising from 1 January 2023 (Resolution №33, Art. 4), and matsne.gov.ge showed no amendment to it as of 24 October 2026. For public-school teachers the state tops the benefit up to full salary (Resolution №33, Art. 2). Employer and employee may also agree on additional pay (Labour Code, Art. 39).

Once an employee tells her employer she is pregnant, the employer may not end the contract until these leaves are over, except on the grounds the Code lists (Art. 47(5)(c)).

The Code has no separate “study leave” (Labour Code, Chapters VI–VII). A few similar rules exist instead:

• Study, retraining or professional development of up to 30 calendar days a year is a ground for suspending the employment relationship (Art. 46(2)(j)). No pay is due during it unless the law or the contract says otherwise (Art. 46(4)).
• If the employer decides to send you on a course, the time on the course counts as working time and is paid (Art. 22(3)).
• The legal representative or supporter of a person with a disability may take an extra paid day of rest once a month, or agree different working hours with the employer (Art. 24(10)).
• A blood donor’s hours missed for donation count as excused absence, with pay kept, on presenting a supporting document (Art. 24(10¹)).

The Code mentions compensation for unused leave directly in one case: when the employer ends the contract. The employer must then pay for unused leave in proportion to the length of the employment (Labour Code, Art. 31(5)).

According to the Supreme Court, the compensation in that case covers both this year’s unused leave, in proportion to the time worked, and unused leave carried over from the previous year (Supreme Court of Georgia, case №ას-44-2021, 31 May 2021).

When you resign, or the contract ends by agreement, the Code sets no duty to compensate: Article 31(5) covers only termination on the employer’s initiative. A contract, however, may give the employee better terms (Art. 31(4)). So check the contract and internal regulations before you leave. If such a term is there, the employer must honour it; if not, it is better to use your leave before you go.

When the contract ends, the employer must complete the final settlement within 7 calendar days, unless the contract or the law sets another period (Art. 44).

The Code prescribes no mandatory form for a leave request or a leave order (Labour Code, Arts. 14, 23 and 31–36). The leave procedure belongs in the contract (Art. 14(1)(h)) and may also be written into the internal regulations (Art. 23(2)).

In a dispute, a written trail protects both sides, so document leave in three steps:

1. State the type of leave and the dates in a request. You can use our free leave request form, or the unpaid leave request for leave without pay.
2. Confirm the employer’s decision in writing, for example with a leave order.
3. Mark the leave days on the timesheet (Minister’s Order №01-15/ნ, Annex 1, Art. 5(4)).

The employer records the hours worked on every working day and keeps the record for 1 year (Labour Code, Art. 24(11)). In the 28 April 2023 version of the form, paid leave is marked „ა/შ“ and unpaid leave „უ/შ“ (Order №01-15/ნ, Annex 1, Art. 5(4)). Maternity leave has two codes: „დ/შ-ა“ for paid days and „დ/შ-უ“ for unpaid days (same provision). A ready form with these codes is on our timesheet template page, and the guide how to fill in a timesheet explains each column.

If leave requests get lost in email and chat, PLYNTUM’s requests and approvals keep them in one place. An employee sends a leave request with the dates, a manager approves or rejects it, and the decision stays with the request. The person who asked can cancel it until it is decided. Every request, decision and cancellation stays on record for the person and their manager.

• Types: leave, unpaid leave, sick leave, late arrival, absence explanation, remote work, equipment or admin, and general approvals.
• Balances: PLYNTUM shows vacation and day-off balances. Both use fixed allowances that you cannot set to your own contract or policy in PLYNTUM today, so compare the balance with the contract, especially if it gives more than the Code’s minimum.
• Planning: from the Scale plan, leave shows in the workload and capacity view next to tasks and attendance, so you can check who is away before you assign new work.
• Plans: leave requests are on every plan, including Launch at $55 a month for 5 members, with a 7-day trial and no card. See pricing.

PLYNTUM is not accounting software and has no legal features. It does not decide how many days a person is entitled to, and calculating leave pay stays with your accountant.

Leave for civil servants is governed by the Law of Georgia on Public Service, consolidated version of 13 October 2026.

• Annual paid leave is 24 working days (Law on Public Service, Art. 62(1)).
• The right to leave arises 11 months after appointment, or earlier with the consent of the authorized person (Art. 62(2)).
• Splitting leave into parts is the civil servant’s right (Art. 62(3)).
• Unlike in the private sector, leave not used during the year can be used in the next calendar year, on a schedule agreed with the manager (Art. 62(4)).
• Unpaid leave of up to 1 year is possible if it does not conflict with the institution’s interests (Art. 62(5)).
• Leave for pregnancy, childbirth and childcare is 730 calendar days, of which 183 are paid (200 after a complicated birth or for twins), from the institution’s budget (Art. 64(1)–(2)).
• Adoption leave is 550 days, 90 of them paid (Art. 64(4)).

This guide is for information and does not replace legal advice. It is based on the consolidated Labour Code of Georgia as of 16 September 2026, Minister’s Order №01-15/ნ on time recording in its 28 April 2023 version, Government Resolution №33 of 24 January 2023 and the Law on Public Service as of 13 October 2026, all read on matsne.gov.ge on 23 and 24 October 2026. Where a special law governs the relationship, as in the civil service, other rules may apply (Labour Code, Art. 1(1)). For your own case, check the current version on matsne.gov.ge and ask a lawyer. Sub-paragraph letters in the citations follow the order of the Georgian alphabet (ა = a, ბ = b, გ = c and so on).

• Labour Code of Georgia, consolidated version of 16 September 2026
• Law of Georgia on Public Service, consolidated version of 13 October 2026
• Minister’s Order №147/ნ of 3 May 2007 on the list of heavy, harmful and hazardous work, last consolidated on 11 November 2020
• Government Resolution №381 of 27 July 2018
• Government Resolution №33 of 24 January 2023 on the maternity, childcare and adoption benefit
• Minister’s Order №01-15/ნ of 12 February 2021 on the time recording form, as amended by Order №27/ნ of 28 April 2023
• Supreme Court of Georgia, case №ას-44-2021, 31 May 2021

• Free leave request form for small companies (Word)
• Free unpaid leave request template (Word)
• Free leave order template for Georgia (Word)
• Give every request a clear destination.
• Capacity you can plan around.
• How to fill in the Georgian timesheet form (working time record)