A New Collective agreement for testers of Milgam

About 100 employees of Milgam who perform practical driving tests in Petah Tikvah and northern districts of Israel will enjoy increases to their salaries and new benefits.

The new collective agreement was signed by the Histadrut, the Milgam company, and its workers’ council signed at the beginning of the week. The 100 workers who benefit from this agreement conduct about 1,400 practical driving tests daily. Including private cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, agricultural vehicles, and on buses, all in Petah Tikva and some of the northern districts of Israel.

This is the second collective agreement for Milgam company employees. The first agreement was signed in 2021, after the unionization of the company’s employees at the Histadrut. The new agreement is valid until the 31^st of December 2025, and it includes improvements to employees’ wages, work conditions, and a system of new incentives.

The main points of the agreement include a salary increase of 4 ILS per hour for anyone with a seniority of six or more months. In addition, examiners of heavy load vehicles will receive another 7 ILS per hour when they conduct tests. Motorcycle examiners will receive a monthly grant amounting to 1,000 ILS for months in which they reach a quota of 75 examinations; Grants will be provided based on a retroactive calculation every calendar year; Motorcycle examiners will also receive 3 ILS per hour for tests that exceed the average of 85 tests per month.

Other perks of the agreement include reimbursement for transportation, which will be calculated according to the distance an employee needs to drive to their place of work. Compensation at the sum of 5 work hours for every night an employee had to stay away from home for work reasons. 85% of employees under this agreement will also receive a signing bonus of 1,000 ILS with the cut-off being one and a half years or more of seniority at the time of this agreement coming into effect.

In addition to financial incentives and compensation, the negotiation teams also elaborated on working conditions that were previously vague. Consequently, the new agreement also refines the mechanism of disciplinary and dismissal procedures, which were not clear enough in the initial agreement.

Attorney Eyal Yadin, Chairman of the Transportation Workers’ Union, said that by increasing wages as well as incentivizing workers to reach company targets, the agreement is productive to the company’s success. It is also maintaining the rights of workers and their well-being and proves the importance of unionized labor in improving and strengthening the position of employees. “We will continue to lead to the improvement of wages and employment conditions in the transportation industry in the companies unionized with us.”

The chairman of the examiners project workers’ committee at Milgam, Munir Saeb, welcomed the agreement and said that it ” substantially improves the examiners’ salary conditions, while ensuring their occupational security, along with additional financial incentives for the workers.”