Government Employees Union declare labor dispute following destructive coalition agreement

The Histadrut declared a labor dispute in the government ministries following the intention to dismantle and split ministries, units and divisions unilaterally and without negotiation with the workers as part of the coalition agreements signed between the Likud and the other coalition parties.

The Israel Union of Government Employees (IUGE) of the Histadrut declared the dispute with the approval of the Histadrut chairman, Arnon Bar-David. 

The dispute encompasses about 70 thousand employees in the civil service. If there is no progress in the talks between the parties, the workers can take organizational measures and even strike starting in two weeks.

One of the several bodies expected to be dismantled as part of the establishment of the new government is the Directorate General of Labor – Ministry of Economy and Industry, which currently operates under the Ministry of Economy, but as an independent arm with a director general in a position equivalent to that of a government ministry. According to the coalition agreements between the Likud and Shas, the directorate should be dismantled into three units. The units that are supposed to move are the Senior Division for Professional Training and Personnel Development, the Government Institute for Technological Training (MHT), and the Directorate of Population Employment, which is responsible for promoting the integration of Arabs, ultra-Orthodox, women , adults and people with disabilities in the employment market.

Chairman of the IUGE, Ofir Alcalay: “Splitting the labor directorate will harm its activity and the populations that need it”

“Splitting the labor branch and transferring units from it to another office is a completely wrong idea,” the Chairman of the Israel Union of Government Employees, attorney Ofir Alcalay, “In recent years, excellent work has been done in the labor directorate, under the management of Tair Ifergan and with the cooperation of the workers’ committee headed by Yoni Abuchatzira. The professional training has become effective, and we see an increase in the number of workers who undergo training and are subsequently placed in the labor market.”

According to Alcalay, the Labor Directorate improved its operation after years in which the field of training was split between different ministries and inefficient. “Today, after the Directorate changed its face and got on the right track, tearing units from it to another place is something that will harm its activity and the populations that need it, such as ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, other minorities, and the rest of the workers, and of course also the dedicated working public that deals with the issue.”

In the notice about the labor dispute that was sent yesterday by the Acting Chairman of the IUGE, Doron Karny, to the Chief Supervisor of Labor Relations in the Labor Directorate, attorney Rivka Werbner highlighted that the expected changes in the units have significant consequences for the occupational security of the workers, on their working conditions and their wages, and this “without negotiating with the workers’ representatives regarding these consequences, as required by the long-standing labor relations system.” Karny states, “this is conduct in bad faith, seriously harming the customary collective labor relations system.”