Social action NGOs, in cooperation with parties from the Left and the Right ,
are continuing their efforts to move this summer’s “social justice”
demonstrations “from the tents to the Knesset.” This week legislative focus will
be a series of labor-related bills.
Various socioeconomic bills brought
to a vote in each themed week are meant to be complementary to those based on
the Trajtenberg Committee on social change’s recommendations.
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nine bills on employment and labor issues will be brought to the Ministerial
Committee on Legislation, proposed by Kadima, Meretz, Israel Beiteinu, Balad and
Hadash, some of which include signatures by Likud, Shas, Labor and National
Union lawmakers.
One such bill, by MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima) would require
offices with a large number of employees to open day care centers for workers’
children. MKs Alex Miller (Israel Beiteinu) and Marina Solodkin (Kadima)
proposed a bill to base immigrant teachers’ salaries on the total amount of
years they worked, instead of the years they worked in Israel.
Another
bill, by MK Orit Zuaretz (Kadima) would require employers to adjust the amount
of sick days a worker receives in proportion to how many children the employee
has.
In addition, Knesset committees will discuss employment-related
issues, such as a Committee on the Status of Women meeting on the gender gap in
salaries, or a Labor and Welfare Committee on employment conditions of contract
workers.
The organizations participating in the social-legislation
campaign include ACRI, Social Justice Beersheba, Rabbis for Human Rights, WIZO
and Bema’aglei Tzedek, among others.
The efforts to pass social
legislation began with the Knesset’s winter session two weeks ago, with seven
housing bills – most of which did not pass – as well as no-confidence votes and
speeches on housing in the plenum.
The NGOs called Shas the
“disappointing faction of the week,” because the party’s MKs voted against all
of the housing- related bills, except for one by MK Eitan Cabel (Labor), which
had been approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation. Construction and
Housing Minister Ariel Attias is a member of Shas.
“Two weeks ago, the
MKs failed the public and voted against most of the housing bills,” a statement
by the organizations explained. “This week, we’re giving them another chance to
move from talk to action.”