Court to convene over Histadrut’s planned strike renewal
Labor Court President Arad will hold closed-door meeting on Histadrut’s request to renew strike over employment status of contract workers.
By NADAV SHEMERHistadrut chair Ofer Eini at Labor Court_311(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
National Labor Court President Nili Arad will hold a closed-door meeting Thursday on the Histadrut labor federation’s request to renew a general strike over the employment status of contract workers.Arad ordered the Histadrut, Treasury, Union of Local Authorities and employers to continue negotiations until Thursday. Her decision to hold the meeting came in response to a submission from the Histadrut on Sunday.The labor federation told the court that more than one month of negotiations had failed to produce results.It said Monday that wide gaps still existed between it and Treasury, but added that an agreement had been reached on enforcement of labor laws, and that they had an understanding on the need to increase the quantity of inspectors.The National Labor Court originally ordered the negotiations after allowing the Histadrut to hold a four-hour strike on November 7.
The Histadrut first threatened the strike after the October release of the Trajtenberg Report on Socioeconomic Change – which it said legitimized continued public sector contracting.Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini has compared the employment of contract workers to slavery, and accused the government of not even knowing how many contract workers there are and how many it employs. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has said cleaning and security contract companies service the public sector in every developed economy, while business groups have pointed out that Eini himself signed agreements in the past to allow the use of contractworkers.
