_a.jpg "צילום: ישראל ברדוגו")
Histadrut calls for labor dispute in religious councils
Official dispute initiated after religious council workers suffer prolonged wage delays; dispute to suspend all religious, burial services in 137 councils. 'This is a weapon of last resort,' says head of Clerical Union
Various religious services, including burial services, may be halted in some 137 municipalities in Israel: The Israeli Clerical Union announced Tuesday that the religious councils are considering suspending the burial services unless their workers' wages are paid immediately.
According to the Histadrut Labor Federation, workers in 40 religious councils have not been paid for six months.
The Histadrut has already announced a labor dispute on behalf of all the religious councils, effectively beginning the two-week count down to the day when burial services will be suspended in 137 municipalities.
Arnon Bar-David, head of the Israeli Clerical Union told Ynet that ceasing burial services was a weapon of last resort: "I have no desire to prevent people from burying their loved ones… this measure the last resort.
"I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to exercise our full force on the matter until the government does what it's supposed to do."
So far the religious council in Safed has suspended all burial services and the city's sister-councils in Beit She'an, Hatzor, Dimona, Arad and Tiberias, are said to do the same whitin a few days.
The Histadrut had called on the Prime Minister's Office to allocate the $4.6 million needed in order to pay the religious councils' workers wages immediately, but the PMO claims the wage delay originated in the municipalities and that it is up to them to find a solution for the problem.
Shlomo Stern, head of the municipal religious council's bureau in the Histadrut told Ynet that "(being a religious man) I am painfully aware of the halachic problems suspending burials may cause.
"From a halachic point of view, delaying a burial isn't much worse than delaying wages," said Stern. "The former having to do with the dead and the latter with the living… We are very concerned about those workers that haven't been paid in months."
The religious councils can suspend burial services only in the municipalities where Hevra Kadisha – which is the company responsible for burial services throughout Israel – is not the sole service provider.
