General strike averted as Histadrut, Finance Ministry reach deal
After threatening to declare general strike, workers union leader reaches agreement with finance minister to change status of 10,000 outsourced workers.
A general strike was averted on Monday night after the Finance Ministry and the Histadrut workers' union reached an agreement that will give some ten thousand contract workers direct employment, but would still leave hundreds of thousands others without proper conditions and cost the state about NIS 150 million.
Contract workers are outsourced employees who are not employed directly by their employer, but rather are recruited by an employment agency, which serves as a middleman.
After many days of negotiations, Histadrut chairman Avi Nissenkorn and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon signed an agreement which will bestow government employee status to contract workers in the public sector. However, despite the handshakes and hugs, most contract workers will continue to fight and dream of proper social conditions and government employee status.
According to the agreement, during 2016 Kahlon will act to approve 1,062 jobs for local authorities to employ social workers and the budgeting of 150 additional social workers for poor municipalities. In addition, cleaners in state hospitals and school nurses are expected be employed directly by the institutions.
Cleaners and security personnel in educational institutions will be employed for 12 months out of the year instead of the current ten, however, they will not be directly employed.
"It will take time, but we are moving in the right direction," Kahlon said. "Today we are looking straight into the employees' eyes. The state is taking its responsibility."
Nissenkorn added, "This is a social revolution. We are giving the employee back his dignity."
The Coalition for Direct Employment praised the deal, but said that the agreement constitutes a solution for only 2.5 percent of contract workers in the public sector: "The agreement does not lay the groundwork for a long-term solution to eradicate contract employment."
