"There's a deep crisis of confidence between the Tax Authority committees and management and the Ministry of Finance. Today, the sanctions at the Tax Authority have gone into high gear, including a strike at the income tax and land tax units. Tomorrow, I intend to intensify the struggle, because it seems that this bothers no one at the Ministry of Finance or the Tax Authority's management. They haven’t bothered to pick up the phone," Israel Tax Authority national workers committee chairman Vadim Evenstein told "Globes" today, after intensifying labor sanctions to improve work conditions.
The Tax Authority workers are demanding negotiations with the Ministry of Finance on salary contracts and on the consolidation of the Tax Authority's divisions, which they claim was carried out without consulting them. Today, the workers intensified the labor sanctions announced last week.
The sanctions include shutting the income tax and land tax divisions. Employees will not receive the public, answer phones, or issue land registry permits or permits for mortgages, effectively freezing real estate transactions. Employees are also not handling remittances, loans, payment for shows by foreign artists, and so one. By not issuing permits, the employees' sanctions are delaying transactions and harming day-to-day business.
The Tax Authority said in response, "The Tax Authority and the Ministry of Finance Director of Wages are prepared for a new labor contract with the Tax Authority employees. When the preparations are completed, which will be soon, it will be possible to discuss the matter with the employees and the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel). Under a previous agreement with the workers, they promised industrial quiet through 2013 in order to complete the dialogue between the parties. As for the matter of consolidation, since the tax divisions were consolidated in 2004, when the Tax Authority was established, no measures have been taken against it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 12, 2013
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