Teachers threaten labor dispute over salary issues
In letter to Education Minister Bennett, Teachers Association leader bemoans incompetency of ministry's director-general, saying education officials won't even listen to teachers' plight; kindergarten teachers hitch their wagon to teachers' protest over similar grievances.
In a letter to Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday, Teachers Association leader Ran Erez rejected the minister's plan to establish a committee, headed by Education Ministry Director-General Michal Cohen, that would formulate a reform on the matter within a month.
"We've had enough with committees," Erez wrote. "The Education Ministry's director-general doesn't need a month to study the issue. Cohen is familiar with the recurring humiliating treatment of teachers."
Erez went on to note that after four years in her current role and many additional years of experience in the ministry, if the director-general was not aware of the problem, "then this is a very grave situation. If she knew and did nothing, that's even worse."
The Teachers Association leader said he turned to the ministry seeking solutions to the issue, but his overtures were met with no response.
"During a conference to launch your first school year as education minister, I said that the ministry's director-general is incapable of running the Education Ministry; that she has no 'compass' and that she needed your instructions and backing. Otherwise, she won't be able to manage such a big ministry," Erez wrote. "Since then, nothing has changed and the Education Ministry maintains its bad habits."
In addition to complaints over pay, Erez detailed other issues he says the teachers are worried about. Among other things, he mentioned the two problematic reforms at six-year schools; pension problems for state employees; teachers who are not compensated for additional work, including English teachers, study track coordinators, and homeroom teachers; and the need to clearly define some teachers' responsibilities and authorities
"You promised open dialogue, and insisted that you would resolve at least some of the many existing issues. Unfortunately, you lacked the patience to even listen," Erez wrote. "All of the work meetings we had with the director-general and her team were futile. You don't need more than 10 minutes to understand the problem and make decisions that would resolve, once and for all, the problems with teachers' salary."
Kindergarten teachers have also been experiencing unusual money deductions from their salary or unjustified salary reductions and have therefore hitched their wagon to the school teachers' protest.
The teachers' ad hoc headquarters has received numerous complaints of salary irregularities from kindergarten teachers, including new kindergarten teachers who complained they were not paid in September at all due to errors made by the Education Ministry's Economic and Finance Administration. Some of them were surprised to learn that their names did not appear in the ministry's salary system at all.
"Every year, there are issues with kindergarten teachers' September and October salaries," said Lily Pokmonski, the head of the kindergarten teachers' department at the Israel Teachers Union. "The kindergarten teachers never know how much they're going to get paid, and it's very sad that this is the way of things. It's enough for one digit of a kindergarten teacher's ID number to be typed wrong for her not to get paid, and unfortunately that happens a lot."
An Education Ministry official said that "over the past year, the ministry has led moves in an effort to significantly minimize the number of cases in which a teacher doesn't get paid in full.
"Among these actions were: Sending reminders to school principals regarding the assignment of teachers, text messages sent to educators whose details were not entered into the system, and developing a system that would open an online employee file to improve the integration of teachers."
"The ministry does not engage in smear campaigns," the official added. "Instead, it focuses its activity into providing solutions for the advancement of teachers and students in Israel. The Education Ministry is working to prepare the education system for the challenges of the 21st century, and we invite all of our partners to join us."
Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad contributed to this story.