Workers strike longer

Most of the days lost to strikes in 2007 were through the education system strike.

The number of work days lost to the economy as a result of strikes rocketed by 1,771% to 2.5 million in 2007, compared with just 136 days in 2006, reveals a report published today by the labor relations division at the Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor. According to the figures, 386,000 employees went on strike for more than one day, three times the 125,000 that did so in 2006.

Ironically, there were actually fewer strikes in 2007 than 2006 (30 against 35 in the previous year), although they were far longer. Labor relations division head Shlomo Yitzhaki attributes the dramatic increase to the prolonged strikes staged by the Association of High School Teachers, and senior faculty staff at universities, as well as public sector strikes launched by the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) over labor agreements. Strikes in the educational sector accounted for 86% of the days lost to the economy.

The figures also reveal that 37% of the total strikes were over pay agreements; 17% were over structural change; 10% were over salary non-payment, and the rest were due to various reasons - salary claims, discriminatory work conditions, unfair dismissal, and poor physical conditions at the workplace. The figures show that 27% of the strikes were not officially sanctioned, and 63% of strikes lasted more than a day. 83% of the strikes occurred in the public sector and the rest in the private sectors.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 8, 2008

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018