Honor thou dead (Illustration)
Photo: David Hacohen
Lod's religious council suspends burial services
Services suspended after municipality delays council's workers' wages despite mayor's assurances. 'Apparently withholding services is the only way to go,' they say
The Lod Municipal Religious Council announced Sunday it is suspending the city's burial services due to a delay of their wages.
Religious Council workers have so far refused to bury three of the city's dead. Dina Cohen, head of the Religious Council workers' union, told Ynet that Lod Mayor Ilan Harari has assured her the workers will be paid by after the delayed burials were conducted, but has not kept his word.
"Our faith has obviously been misplaced," she said. "We usually don't suspend burial services on Sunday, in order to care for those who passed away over the weekend, but apparently it's the only way to go."
Workers at the Lod Religious Council are not the only ones in this predicament: according to the Histadrut Labor Federation, workers at 17 municipalities suffer from wage delays.
Heads of religious councils' services in the Prime Minister's Office said the problem lies with the municipalities, since the government has paid all of their wage debts after the last general strike.
The municipalities, said the PMO, fail time and again to pay their share of the religious councils' budget. The Interior Ministry, however, claimed the problem was not the municipalities, but rather the PMO, which is "solely responsible for this situation".
