Dozens of medical residents who failed to show up for their shifts at Ichilov and Sheba Hospitals Thursday morning showed up in the early afternoon, Army Radio reported, bending to a ruling by the National Labor Court. Doctors at Sheba Hospital announced their decision to suspend their resignations until Monday, in accordance with the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's request.
Their failure to report to work represented the first time that significant numbers of residents in a labor dispute did not show up for work since their mass resignation in September.
RELATED:Medical residents agree to postpone resignation by 48 hoursThe absence of some 50 residents reportedly caused widespread confusion in the hospitals, despite the fact that most of the over 700 residents who initially resigned heeded Wednesday's court decision.
Poised to hand over their
stethoscopes, cellphones and other equipment and say farewell to their patients
on Thursday morning, they were
prevented from doing so by National Labor Court
President Nili Arad, who on Wednesday afternoon suspended the doctors’
resignation letters. The court was responding to an urgent request filed by the
state for an emergency hearing.
The state previously argued that residents abandoning their posts at once would constitute an “illegal and forbidden strike” as defined in the
Labor Court’s ruling in September, causing chaos and closing
departments in the hospitals.
The
Finance Ministry released a list of offers it had made to the medical residents
that seemed generous enough to make the young physicians look stubborn and
unwilling to reach a compromise. But despite the offers, the Treasury declared
that the labor agreement it signed with the Israel Medical Association in late
August would remain in force.