State goes to labor court to keep doctors from resigning

Residents at Rambam vote not to accept PM's request to wait a few days to examine suggestions raised during previous night's meeting.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH, JOANNA PARASZCZUK, JPOST
doctor strike haifa_311 (photo credit: Piotr Fliter/Ramban Medical Center)
doctor strike haifa_311
(photo credit: Piotr Fliter/Ramban Medical Center)
The state submitted an urgent request to the National Labor Court on Wednesday afternoon asking for injunctions to prevent residents from resigning on Thursday.
Medical residents at Rambam Hospital voted Wednesday morning not to accept Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's request that representatives of the residents wait a few days to examine suggestions raised during Tuesday night's meeting before resigning, according to Army Radio.
RELATED:Medical residents agree to postpone resignation by 48 hoursCommittee member Professor Yehuda Alman explained that the residents felt the meeting was not productive and have voted to have their resignations take effect on Thursday.
Prime Minister, and formally health minister, Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night met with Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman, Treasury wage chief Ilan Levin, Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman and other negotiators in the residents’ dispute to hear the various sides and try to help find solutions.
Netanyahu requested that representatives of the medical residents wait a few days to examine suggestions, a joint statement by the Prime Minister’s Office, the IMA and representatives of the residents said.
During the meeting, which lasted over two hours, the representatives explained to the prime minister the problematic nature of continuing the agreement and the working conditions. The representatives promised they would respond to the prime minister’s recommendations after they had consulted with the relevant doctors.
Eidelman said after the meeting that in the meantime the prime minister had not provided any solutions to the problem but had given various options.
“We are still waiting for decisions to be made and we hope that in the next few days there will be solutions,” he added.
Despite claims that some medical residents were “so angry” they would resign on Tuesday – even though their voluntary organization agreed to negotiate intensively through Wednesday – all of them turned up at their jobs on Tuesday morning, the Health Ministry reported.