Finance Minister Yair Lapid
Photo: Ilan Shapiro
Israel, unions to start talks as national strike looms
Labor Union leveraging strike threat to increase minimum wage from NIS 4,300 (1,116); Lapid expresses general support for idea as talks begin.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid will start negotiations with the country's main labor union on Monday in a bid to avert a national strike over demands to sharply raise the minimum wage, the ministry said.
Lapid invited Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn and Zvika Oren, head of Israel's Manufacturers' Association for talks on Monday aimed at preventing a strike the Histadrut has set for Dec. 4 and would likely shut the airport, trains, seaports and government services.
Israel's minimum wage stands at 4,300 shekels ($1,116) a month and the Histadrut - the umbrella organization for hundreds of thousands of public service workers - is seeking a hike to 5,300.
Yair Lapid (Photo: Ilan Sifra)
National strikes cost Israel's economy an estimated 2 billion shekels a day.
Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn (Photo: Oren Cohen, Histadrut PR)
Lapid, in a meeting with Nissenkorn on Friday, said he supports a rise in the minimum wage and helping those at the bottom of the wage scale.
He has said in the past that he would support a rise to 4,500 shekels a month. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett also has expressed support for a higher minimum wage.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Israel's real minimum wage was in the middle of the pack - 12th out of 25 countries in 2013. In dollar terms, it was $14,291 a year in 2013, just behind the United States' $15,080.
This placed Israel well behind Australia, with the highest annual minimum wage at $30,389, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Canada, the UK and Japan.
But it was well above Mexico, the lowest at $1,285, Chile, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Poland, Turkey, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Korea and Slovenia.
Nissenkorn called Israel's minimum wage a "starvation wage" and said it was the country's main problem.
"I do not see government ministers or Knesset (parliament) members capable of surviving a month on 4,300 shekels," he said, adding that he would not accept a monthly rise of 200 shekels.
Oren said he favored a hike in the minimum wage as part of a comprehensive agreement that reduces the employers' tax and allows for more flexible working hours.
He said he opposed a strike "because it does not allow for real negotiations".
The minimum wage was last raised by 200 shekels a month in October 2012.
