Workers protest Holocaust survivors hostel privatization
LAST UPDATED: 09/18/2011 11:20
Caregivers demand nationalization of Pardesiya hostel, state employee status; Welfare Services dir.-gen. supports cause.
Watching loved ones aging can be difficult Photo: Illustrative photo: MCT
Hostel
workers protested the privatization of the hostel for Holocaust
survivors in Pardesiya, in a demonstration outside the Prime Minister
Office in Jerusalem on Sunday, Army Radio reported.
Dror Israel
Movement activists were set to join the social workers in their demand
to nationalize the hostel, and be absorbed as state employees, which
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had previously promised, they claimed.
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Welfare and Social Services Ministry Director-General Nachum
Itzkovitz
told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday he strongly backs the workers'
demands.
Speaking by phone from New York, Itzkovitz – who four years ago
headed an inter-ministry that monitored the implementation of government
decisions on Holocaust survivors and improved their quality of life – said they
deserved the best possible care.
“Survivors, especially those living in
hostels, have the most complicated conditions. We in the ministry never agreed
to the privatization of caregiver services three years ago.
There are
services that don’t have to be provided by state workers, such as
administration. But those employees who give direct care to the needy, such as
the survivors, need their caregivers to be state workers so they can devote
their work hours to them and don’t have to worry about job security,” Itzkovitz
said.
Friday saw the first day of sanctions at the Lev Hasharon hostel by 100 caregivers
for aging Holocaust survivors demanding government rather than
contractual worker
status,
The caregivers at the hostel in Pardesiya said initially they would
provide only partial services to the survivors, but if their demands were not
met, they would regretfully launch a fully-fledged strike. They said when the
government changes contractors for the project, they are at risk of
dismissal.