Crowd 58.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Hundreds of social workers are expected to march through Tel Aviv Friday morning
in an attempt to raise public awareness to their demands for a pay increase and
better work conditions, and highlight the importance of the work they do, it was
announced Thursday.
Organized by the official social workers rights
movement Atidenu (Our Future), the demonstration will kick off at Habima Theater
and continue along the main Rothschild Boulevard, with social workers handing
out flyers and speaking with the public about why their demand for higher pay
and better resources is justified.
“We don’t know where the Social
Workers Union stands right now in terms of declaring an all-out strike, but we
want to express to the public and the government that we, the social workers,
are inflamed and we are ready and willing to launch a strike in order to improve
our conditions,” Inbal Hermoni, spokeswoman of Atidenu and a social worker
herself, told the
Post in an interview.
“Being a social worker is a lot
of responsibility and is a very important job, but the majority of us earn less
than the average wage of NIS 8,300 a month,” she continued.
According to
Hermoni, even though most social workers have academic degrees, the base pay for
a new social worker is no more than NIS 2,300, with income support and other
fiscal benefits bumping it up slightly. After two or three years in the trade,
social workers can usually expect to earn no more than NIS 6,000 a month, she
said.
“We are talking about educated people with academic degrees who go
out and help all segments of the population – pre-schoolers, children, youth,
adults and the elderly,” continued Hermoni, adding that the call for a labor
dispute was also related to a lack of resources and poor work
conditions.
“Every citizen in Israel has the right to turn to social
welfare services, but the situation today means there is simply not enough
manpower to take on every case,” she said.
“Every social worker has
between 100 and 500 case files, and they do it all on the equivalent of a
part-time salary.”
Social Workers Union spokesman David Golan told the
Post Thursday that the two-week incubation period for declaring a labor dispute
had now passed, and depending on the outcome of talks taking place with the
Treasury on Thursday, the union was within its rights to announce a strike
whenever it saw fit.
“Of course we do not want to strike; we want the
Finance Ministry to increase the pay scale for social workers,” he said, adding
that “talks held Wednesday made some progress on certain issues, but there is
still a sharp disagreement on how much to increase the salaries, and we now have
the right to call for strike action if we need to.”
Golan explained that
the standard pay scale for social workers had not been formally adjusted since
1976.
“I deeply admire this country’s social workers, who work night and
day for others in distress, taking on the extraordinary burden of the weaker
populations,” recently inaugurated Welfare and Social Services Minister Moshe
Kahlon told the
Post on Thursday.
“But unfortunately, the rewards are
very low and clearly unreasonable for these welfare warriors, and I truly
believe that this situation requires an immediate change,” he went on.
“Therefore, I completely support them in reaching an agreement that will improve
the financial and work conditions of all social workers out in the
field.”
He added, “Since taking over as minister, I have been monitoring
the subject closely and have held meetings with Social Workers Union chairman
Itzik Perry and representatives of the Histadrut labor federation, in a genuine
desire to bring an end to this crisis as quickly as possible.”