After two-week strike, negotiations between the Finance Ministry and the Histadrut reach conclusion, but social workers say they are worth more.
The Social Workers Union rejected on Sunday a deal for improved working conditions reached in negotiations between the Histadrut and the Finance Ministry, saying that they need to return to talks in order to achieve better results.
“We have made a difficult decision not to settle on the current agreement because we are worth more than this,” top union member Michal Gomel said after the decision was made.
“The problematic and painful point for us is that a new wages table which ensures the possibility of promotion in the future, for even if they raise our salaries now, in several years we will again be stuck with very low pay,” she said.
Conditions for social workers are worse in Israel than elsewhere in the Western world, according to Anglo professionals, as the nationwide strike of the country’s social workers concluded its second week.
“We demand to continue negotiations. Just like we explained to Ofer Eini [head of the Histadrut] we believe in him and in ourselves and we know that we can persist and continue despite the how difficult it is for us not to treat our patients and not to get a salary,” Gomel said.
Eini said that he respected the Union’s decision to turn down the offered deal, and said “I got the best possible result for them that could have been reached according to their demands.”
The article was published in Haaretz on March 20, 2011
