Discount Bank CEO: We're ready for full strike

Discount Bank's workers committee shut the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange branch for two days, and ordered "work to rule" at other branches.

"I am always optimistic, but the labor dispute might worsen. We're also ready for a full strike," Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) CEO Reuven Spiegel told "Globes" on Wednesday in response to the deterioration in labor relations at the bank.

"Never! Never, has the bank's management dared to conduct, behave, and act so brutally against the national workers committee and Discount workers," opens a letter from the Discount Bank workers committee, chaired by Riki Bachar, to the bank's employees on Sunday. The letter announced the intensification of labor sanctions at the bank.

The letter symbolizes the bad blood between Discount Bank's management under chairman Yossi Bachar and Spiegel, and the union. The labor dispute was declared seven months ago, but has been on the back burner ever since - until an escalation this week. The workers committee shut down the branch at the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange on Wednesday and Thursday, and management announced that the striking employees will not be paid for the strike days. At other branches, employees will not carry out work beyond their basic jobs, and management decided to dock these employees' pay by 20%.

Most of the labor sanctions do not affect customers - except for one: the workers committee announced that it will block outgoing mail from the bank's branches, including checks.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 28, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

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