Medical centers to directly employ maintenance workers

Implementation of 2015 Histadrut/Treasury agreement to employ 1,500 hospital cleaning workers directly to take place in July.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Updated: JUNE 27, 2016 02:09
Histadrut protest [File] (photo credit: Courtesy)
Histadrut protest [File]
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Some 1,500 maintenance workers who have been employed in public hospitals by contractors will soon be accepted as direct employees of the medical centers, following an agreement reached by the Histadrut labor federation with the Treasury.
The Histadrut, headed by Avi Nissenkorn, said the agreement, to be implemented next month, is another step toward increasing equity and reducing social gaps.
Health Ministry director- general Moshe Bar Siman Tov said that the 1,500 will include cleaning workers now employed in “health corporations” that provide services as part of the health basket but in the past were intentionally kept private by the state so it would not have to hire them as employees.
The accord was signed in principle a year ago after a long struggle headed by the Histadrut but will only now be fully implemented. The struggle, which included demonstrations and sanctions, affected 35,000 contractual workers in a variety of economic sectors.
Following the 1,500 maintenance workers, some 12,000 – school nurses, social workers, paramedical workers and others – will become direct employees of the government or local authorities. The cost of the change will be some NIS 20 million a year.
Nissenkorn said that direct employment would mean a real change for 1,500 families as well as for all of Israeli society.
Cleaning workers fill a vital job in hospitals, and their becoming paid employees of the hospitals will improve their performance, raise their self-esteem and reduce social gaps, he said.


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