Income tax employees have voted to strike starting from next Monday. All Israel Tax Authority offices will be closed until further notice.
Income tax workers committee chairman Talchum Fridlov said that employees had received no additional pay for the extra tasks they have had to perform following the repeated changes in legislation over the years. He added that a labor dispute had been declared long ago, and that he had been in talks with the Ministry of Finance throughout this period on improving pay conditions for staff carrying out extra tasks.
Fridlov said he had been willing to reach a compromise with the Ministry of Finance but did not see any willingness on the part of the ministry to respond in kind. He added that in his view the gaps between the sides were not great, but "no one wants to talk to me."
Recently, income tax employees halted work on issues related to organized crime over the lack of extra pay. In addition, Fridlov also instructed staff not to do any work connected to the negative income tax plan.
Public sector salary figures show that the average salary among income tax employees is 25% higher than the average salary in the rest of the public sector:NIS 12,000 against NIS 9,000 in other ministries. In addition, tax employees' pay rose by 20% in 2000-2007, compared with 10% for other public sector employees during the same period. The Ministry of Finance has added an extra 200 positions in the Tax Authority under the framework of the 2009 budget, to help implement the negative income tax plan, among other things.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance said, "We regret the decision by income tax employees to take advantage of negative income tax claimants and exploit the sensitive state the economy is currently in to get themselves a pay rise."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 3, 2008
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