Annual labor conference concludes with call for dialogue, collaboration and innovation

Over the past three days, union leaders, government officials, labor experts, and business representatives gathered at the 26th annual Labor Conference in Eilat to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing workers and employers in the modern economy.

The event featured keynote speeches and panel discussions on topics ranging from vocational training, extension orders, quiet quitting, modern collective bargaining agreements, and workplace safety to automation freelancers, the challenges of aged workers, and human capital in the public sector.
Despite the diverse range of perspectives represented at the conference, one theme emerged as a common thread: the need for collaboration and innovation to address the complex and evolving landscape of labor relations.

Day One

In his opening address, the Deputy Chairman of the Histadrut and Chairman of the Organizing and Regions Divisio, Mr. Avi Yehezkel, said, “There is a tsunami wave that led us to a jungle economy – the strong survive, but before that, they eat the weak. I mean the destructive spirit you see in the libertarian worldview – I challenge this view of Forum Kohelet, which is a tangible danger to the State of Israel.
In an era in which the chairman of the Histadrut, Arnon Bar-David, shows public and state responsibility, we are in favor of dialogue and even in favor of reforms, but only through dialogue. We believe that the face of a democratic society at its base relies on the person who works and earns a living with dignity.”

Throughout the conference, speakers and attendees shared examples of successful collaborations between labor and management, such as joint health and safety committees, skills training programs, and modern collective agreements. They also discussed emerging trends and challenges in the labor market.

The chairman of the Histadrut of the Building and Associated Industries Workers’ Union, Itzik Moyal: “The construction industry is considered attractive and profitable for the employee given the high salaries offered in it, and the working conditions which are among the best in the labor market – a pension, a training fund from day one and a higher than average salary. Despite this, despite the conditions and the imparting of professional skills on behalf of the Histadrut of the Construction Workers and Related Industries, interesting new workers are difficult, and this is one of the main issues that are put before us.”

“One of the overarching goals of the Construction Professions Academy deals with the strong need to increase human capital and expand the professional tools of those employed in the industry. The construction industry needs more than 30,000 professional workers and over 3,000 foremen. Our vision is to create an envelope of training and studies through differential pathways for all workers in the construction industry, which includes enrichment and development courses for foremen from all relevant sectors, with an emphasis on safety at work, at the end of which we match the graduates of the courses for placement with the various employers.”

“In recent years, technological systems and automation have been implemented as work tools, and we are eager to receive employees with professional knowledge who know how to leverage the work results thanks to modern means while always maintaining safety rules on the sites, at the highest level.”

Yossi Barabi, Chairman of the Security, Cleaning, and Nursing Workers’ Union: “The general collective agreements are only one step in anchoring the conditions of employment and improving the wages of the workers. The extension orders give validity to these agreements for them to be recognized by third parties, especially when there is a business triangle of a contractor, a service orderer, and an employee.

An employer or service orderer who does not recognize the extension order is exposed to lawsuits both under the law to increase labor law enforcement and under criminal law.

Along with improving working conditions, the collective industry agreements have created innovative mechanisms designed to enforce workers’ rights while reducing the need to turn to external judicial courts.”

Attorney Oren Shrem of the Legal Bureau in the Trade Union Division of the Histadrut said in a panel that dealt with class actions and labor relations: “A class action lawsuit by an employee against the workplace is a tool that needs to be used in a measured manner, and it does not replace the union. However, organizing has forward-looking advantages and values of solidarity,”.
“We in the Histadrut are in favor of enforcement, and we take enforcement actions in organized places where we are,” said Attorney Sharm. “The Histadrut has many tools to enforce: collective bargaining, appeals to the workers’ committee, individual committees, and more. Through these tools we are, in fact, replacing the tool of a class action.”

Attorney Sivan Radian, from the Legal Bureau of the Trade Union Division of the Histadrut: “The extension orders create standardization in the labor market and bridge the gap between the employment conditions of the organized workers and the employment conditions of the workers in unorganized workplaces. The equality of conditions is essential among disadvantaged working populations.

In contractual employment, for example, the extension order creates certainty in the tender process, that the competition between the employers will not be at the back of the employees and that the “race” for the attractive offer in the tender will not become a “race to the bottom.”

In conclusion, Attorney Radian said, “The Histadrut is working vigorously to sign collective agreements in these industries and to expand them with exptension orders. For example, only recently were requests submitted to expand agreements in the catering and cleaning industries, which will significantly improve employment conditions in these industries.

The sections of the law relevant to the authority of the Labor Relations Commissioner to issue extension orders are clear and detailed so that all that is required to move the mechanism better is to activate it.”

Day Two

The second day opened with a lecture by the President of Na’amat Hagit Pe’er, who dealt with corporate responsibility and labor relations. Pe’er said, “Studies show that in companies with a high percentage of women members of the management, the board of directors and the financial management – succeed in various parameters, in the profit line, and with external investors. Pe’er concluded that “corporate responsibility includes a fair work environment. Without gender equality, there is no fair work environment”.

“The workers’ organizations are seen as too conservative and traditional, when in fact unionization is the answer and the solution for the workers and employers.” This is what Rom Dvir, Director of the Unions Department in the Histadrut’s Labor Unions Division, said in a panel that dealt with “The silent resignation – a fiction or a real trend?”

“This is a counter-movement in the violation of the balance of work at the expense of free time and the mismatch of the increase in productivity and income. Employees are frustrated when they are not rewarded properly, so if you want them to work more – reward them more!

Today, the most significant increase in work at the expense of free time is precisely among those aged 65 and over. Therefore, I will not be surprised if, in the coming years, we will encounter quiet quitting among the adults and the managerial ranks,” Dvir added.

In conclusion, he suggests that “we must move to a method of agreements, partnership, autonomy, democracy and employee participation. Therefore – a collective agreement and employee representation are the answer and the solution. Along with meaning, we need to engage in the granting of welfare.”

Chairman of the Aerospace Industry Workers’ Council, Yair Katz: “In an era of many changes in the labor market, we must make the necessary adjustments in salary models, from old models based on seniority and automatic additions to those that will encourage excellence and allow employers to recruit and retain the best quality employees.

The question is, how do you deal with challenges such as the tension between employment stability and the involvement and witness of employees in the process, the employer’s desire for managerial flexibility, and who and how is responsible for the professional development of employees during their careers, which makes this particularly challenging. Possible? Definitely!”

The chairman of the Union of Clerical Administrative and Public Service Employees (UCAPSE), attorney Gil Bar-Tal, moderated a panel on wage agreements as a tool for recruiting and retaining employees in the public sector. Among other things, he referred to the concept of tenure of employees to whom collective agreements apply: “We need to have a mechanism that oversees layoffs of employees – to avoid, among other things, layoffs due to extraneous, reckless, political and other improper considerations. We seek to create a balance between the power of the employer and that of the employee.”

On the subject of the teacher assistants, Bar-Tal said: “These days, negotiations are underway for the reform of the teachers’ assistants’ wages. They are an important and inseparable part of the kindergarten, school, and children’s education team, including medical and integrated aides in regular and special education. We are conducting intensive negotiations for reform and an unprecedented change in salary, status, and the profession’s transformation into an appreciated profession. From the date of signing, the assistants will be educational supporters, will undergo training and advanced training, and will have a promotion horizon.”

The Chairman of the Union of Social Workers in the Histadrut, Inbal Hermoni, commented on the status of social workers and the recent discourse regarding their terms of employment: “Unfortunately, we had to embark on a difficult struggle that included a strike of two and a half weeks to obtain the agreement required for the population of social workers. The fact that it was necessary to struggle and to cry out is a certificate of poverty for the State of Israel and the Ministry of Finance,”

Hermoni added about the new wage model and the adjustments made: “After a lot of thinking, we recalculated a route and introduced a professional-modern model, with social workers currently advancing according to professional experience and relevant studies. We have created a matrix of professional and managerial levels, and the transition between workplaces has become one that does not involve giving up economic rights. Also, we obtained approval for distance learning to make it easier for attorneys in the periphery who want to study and advance.”

Despite the reform, Harmoni mentions the need to reach a modern salary agreement, one that would adapt the salary to the nature of the work and the economic situation in the country: “From our point of view, the intention is not to incentivize or give grants, but to continue rewarding based on seniority and experience, with a combination of a respectable salary while opening a professional and economic horizon for the employees of the sector. We have one more step ahead of us, and we aim to increase the amounts for professional and managerial levels so that each level will be worth more money, which will be added to the base salary.”

The Director General of the Trade Union Division and Deputy Director of Economics and Policy at the Histadrut, Adam Blumenberg: “In the last 20 years, the Israeli and global economy have become accustomed to low levels of inflation, so the perception among employers and employees was that any wage increase that is given is seen as a real wage increase. The diskette has changed in two years, the latest with the increase in inflation and the instability in the economy. The workers feel the erosion of wages on all levels.”

“Studies show that a moderate increase in the wages of workers does not increase inflation, as long as it is done responsibly, and we have seen no signs of the contribution of the minimum wage increase to the increase in inflation, not even in the previous minimum wage increase.”

“Today, we are in a bad equilibrium where productivity is low and working hours are long. Therefore, we have no choice but to move to a new equilibrium, with fewer working hours and higher productivity,” said Yoni Ben-Basat, head of economics and social services at the Arlozorov Forum, in a panel on the topic of shortening the workweek and the preservation of productivity.

According to him, this move is also possible in Israel. “It is possible – because all the developed countries are there. The best and correct way to make this transition is through dialogue and agreement.”

At the panel that dealt with the topic “flexibility without exploitation – challenges of hourly employment,” said attorney Hila Shinok, deputy head of the economics and policy department and manager of the strategy and policy department at the Histadrut.

“There is and cannot be any justification for the employment of permanent full-time workers paid on an hourly basis instead of a monthly basis – this is solely a method of saving the costs of employment at the expense of these workers. The Histadrut is promoting a study to estimate the scope of hourly employment in the economy and its characteristics as a basis for a bill that we will submit to regulate hourly employment in Israel”.

“We see utmost importance in maintaining the safety of the employees and protecting them from work accidents.” Attorney Hanna Shnitser, head of the Legal Bureau of the Histadrut Trade Union Division, said this in a panel dealing with injuries at work in a changing world of employment.

Attorney Shnitzer also added: “The changing world of employment challenges the field of occupational injuries both in the aspect of approving injury compensation (for example: due to increased work from home following the Corona crisis) and in the element of the preventive measures that must be taken so that work accidents do not happen at all (e.g., in employment through a platform economy).

“Work accidents are not decrees of fate to be put up with. Activating employees through an algorithm does not release from the obligation to maintain the safety and health of the employees employed in the platform economy. It is possible and even necessary to find ways for effective enforcement to reduce work-related accidents.”

“The workers’ organizations are seen as too conservative and traditional, when in fact unionization is the answer and the solution for the workers and employers.” This is what Rom Dvir, Director of the Unions Department in the Histadrut’s Labor Unions Division, said in a panel that dealt with “The silent resignation – a fiction or a real trend?”

“This is a counter-movement in the violation of the balance of work at the expense of free time and the mismatch of the increase in productivity and income. Employees are frustrated when they are not rewarded properly, so if you want them to work more – reward them more!

Today, the most significant increase in work at the expense of free time is precisely among those aged 65 and above. Therefore, I will not be surprised if, in the coming years, we will encounter the “quiet resignation” among the adults as well as among the managerial ranks,” Dvir added.

In conclusion, he suggests that “we must move to a method of agreements, partnership, autonomy, democracy and employee participation. Therefore – a collective agreement and employee representation are the answer and the solution. Along with meaning, we need to engage in the granting of welfare.”

Day Three

In a panel that dealt with solutions for workers facing career fatigue, Attorney Uri Fleishman, CEO of the Nurses’ Union, said: “In the health system burnout survey conducted in 2022 – 35% of health workers receive a score of 4 out of 5 in the burnout index – where the two main characteristics are depression and a desire to leave everything and go. One in three workers!
20% have symptoms of depression, 15% do not meet work goals due to burnout, and 50% experience risk or almost an accident several times a month due to exhaustion from work! In addition, 28% indicate that stress often or always harms their health.
The definition of a profession as fatiguing frees us from discussing the leading cause of fatigue and injury to employees. Moreover, attaching a stereotype of burnout to the profession exonerates us from treating the central problem of burnout, which is by all accounts the unbearable burden – and the value, the economic, moral, and ideological decision to allocate fewer resources and staffing. The fatigue created in many professions as a result of reducing resources, especially in public service, is not inherent, it is not an integral part of the core of the profession, and it hurts us both as employees and as citizens.

Fatigue in these professions is not fate – it is a decision.

In conclusion: structured exhaustion in professions in Israel is mainly a consequence of conditions we have established as a society. But unfortunately, we have begun to create conditions that endanger the workers and their mental and physical well-being.
So what are we doing? The solutions: allocation of resources, distribution of powers, transfer of administrative powers to the professional employees, additional personnel, and creation of a high-quality and safe work environment.”

In the closing keynote, Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David called on the conference attendees to continue the conversation and work together to build a more just and inclusive economy. “I come every morning with a lot of love for the job, the people, and the employees. And every night, I ask myself, what is the goal? I answer myself – we are following the rut we plowed over the last four years. Changing the image of the Histadrut, changing the DNA of the workplaces, caring for the weak, responsible leadership, and concern for the country. We are all together in cooperation; even with the self-employed, we are connected, and the home of the Histadrut is open to everyone.
Once upon a time, people would revile the Histadrut. Today, those same people see that the fortress is less threatening, no longer a closed and alienated building, but a home open to all, a heart open to all to the entire State of Israel.
Sometimes we – the public – are tired of wars between the right and the left. We are one nation, and I call on everyone: to come and learn from the Histadrut how to work, respect, and be together. Only then can we build a better society, state, and economy here.”

Bar-David also addressed the political upheaval in Israel, and called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to “steer the ship“.

The Conference on Labor Relations concluded with a renewed call form workers and businesses alike to commit to dialogue and action, with many attendees planning to continue the conversation and explore new partnerships in the months and years ahead.