The Ministry of Finance plans to petition the Supreme Court unless an agreement is reached with the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) over contract workers, Acting Ministry of Finance director general Doron Cohen told "Globes" today. The petition would seek to avert Wednesday's general strike.
"The Histadrut has effectively violated a signed labor contract - the collectively agreement signed in 2010 - which explicitly states that there will be industrial quiet through the end of 2012," Cohen said. "This agreement regulates labor relations between the state and government employees. If they can go on strike, the agreement is worthless. Why did we sign agreements and grant pay hikes?"
Cohen says that, for the past three months, the Ministry of Finance has been willing to reach a deal on the direct hiring of some contract workers by employers and to raise cleaners' salaries. He mentioned a ministry-sponsored bill to improve enforcement of labor laws and increase penalties for violations.
"By law, not only must the employer provide all employee conditions, when the employer is supervised and regulated by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, it is also personally and even criminally responsible for violation of employee rights. But the law also imposes responsibility on the service recipient where the violation occurs. He too bears responsibility, including criminally responsibility, even if we're talking about the director general of a ministry. This is a very important milestone in labor law."
Cohen accuses the Histadrut of "trying to dictate a business model that is the complete opposite of global norms, including recommendations by the OECD: specialization and then outsourcing where possible."
Cohen believes that the Histadrut does not want an agreement. "When the Histadrut wants something, it knows how to conduct negotiations to reach a deal. That was the case during the round table talks, and in the talks for the 2010 collective agreement. Regrettably, we don’t see any real willingness to conduct genuine negotiations for a solution. Instead, they are digging in behind impractical slogans." However, in the mean time the Histadrut and Ministry of Finance have resumed talks to try and break the deadlock.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 5, 2012
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