Trading at Tel Aviv Stock Exchange canceled following union dispute
"The Israeli public should understand over what and why the workers union decided to disrupt trade and bring it a halt," the stock exchange said in a sharply-worded statement.
By EYTAN HALONA man stands in front of an electronic board displaying market data at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, in Tel Aviv, Israel(photo credit: REUTERS/BAZ RATNER)
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange canceled all trading on Sunday due to a dispute between the workers union and management over annual bonuses for 2017.While workers initially said they would arrive at the stock exchange for a meeting at 11 a.m. and then start work to protest the withdrawal of management from an ongoing arbitration process, the stock exchange said there was no choice but to cancel all trading as necessary overnight clearing procedures had not been carried out.“The Israeli public should understand over what and why the workers union decided to disrupt trade and bring it a halt,” the stock exchange said in a sharply-worded statement.“The union is not settling for a bonus of NIS 15 million and is demanding to increase it! That is the origin of the current dispute,” said the exchange, adding that the average monthly wage of bourse employees stands at NIS 50,000. “Is this a disturbing disconnect from the reality in which we currently live or uninhibited greed? The public will be the judge.”The workers union responded angrily to the stock exchange’s decision to cancel all trading, stating that CEO Ittai Ben-Zeev ought to act “with a little modesty” after “it was revealed that he pocketed NIS 678,000 at the height of the financial crisis.”Claiming that Ben-Zeev was solely responsible for the cancellation of trading and violating a collective labor agreement with the workers, the union said he was “acting like an elephant in a china shop and wondering why he had left behind destruction and ruin.”Responding to the cancellation of trading, Israel Securities Authority chairwoman Anat Guetta described the outcome of the internal dispute as a matter of “great severity.”“At a time when we are investing resources and a national effort to develop an innovative and attractive capital market, any blow to the integrity of trade is likely to harm investors and the market – a situation which is unreasonable from my point of view,” said Guetta.“The stock exchange is national infrastructure that should not be shut down easily. I have instructed the staff of the authority to examine the issue with all relevant bodies.”Amid increasing tension between the union and management, the Histadrut trade federation called on both sides to return to the negotiating table for the “good of the stock exchange and the recovery of the Israeli economy.”
Workers are ready to return to work immediately despite the cancellation of operations on Sunday, the Histadrut said, and trading should be renewed as scheduled on Monday morning.
