Court orders Histadrut to end strike
National Labor Court orders workers to immediately return to work. Simultaneously, court orders Finance Ministry to pay local authority workers whose wages were held back
National Labor Court President Steve Adler gave his decision on the strike to the representatives of the parties early Thursday:
- A strike is forbidden in the next seven days.
- Employees in all local authorities whose wages were held back will be paid Friday, apart from authorities which are under confiscations.
- Regarding the authorities under confiscations, the religious councils and the firefighting services, intensive discussions will be held in a bid to find a solution for the unpaid wages.
- Regarding the authorities' debts to the workers' pension funds, the parties will write down the conditions they have agreed upon and will set a draft for a solution which will be presented to the Labor Court in a week.
The Labor Court's decision overturned the Histadrut's announcement from Wednesday evening that it would continue with the strike on Thursday as well.
Histadrut labor federation Chairman Ofer Eini demanded, as a condition to end the strike, that the government immediately transfers the full salaries to all local authority workers whose wages were held back in the past few months, that all the employers' contribution to pension funds are allocated and that council heads who hold back wages will be held personally and criminally responsible, in a bid to guarantee that such cases do not repeat themselves.
The finance and interior ministers refused to commit to imposing criminal sanctions on mayors who hold back wages, and could also not guarantee that the workers' wages would be fully paid, including the social contributions, and immediately.
Eini said during the discussion, "For months we have been holding negotiations which did not yield any results. The strike must continue, because when there is no strike nothing happens.
According to economists from the Manufacturers Association of Israel, the damage cause to the economy due to the strike totaled NIS 350 million (about USD 82 million).
