Foreign Ministry workers declare another labor dispute
03/01/2013 02:05
Demands include improved conditions abroad, better management.
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem Photo: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
The Foreign Ministry, which has been without a foreign minister since December
14, may soon be without workers as well, as the ministry’s employees declared a
labor dispute on Thursday.
According to a statement that the workers’
committee put out, the dispute was declared to improve the conditions of workers
abroad, as well as to protest the ministry’s preference for temporary rather
than permanent employees, and the lack of proper management, which harmed the
running of the ministry.
Among the demands is “appropriate compensation”
for spouses of diplomats sent abroad who need to give up their careers and
incomes.
The ministry is the source of chronic work disputes. Two years
ago, a foreign ministry strike scuttled the planned visit of then-Russian
president Dmitri Medvedev.
At present, according to the statement, the
workers are considering the following steps: stopping all contact with
government agencies, including the Prime Minister’s Office and Defense Ministry;
not processing the visits of official guests or senior Israeli officials going
abroad; stopping assistance to Israelis in distress overseas; and cutting off
contact with foreign ministries abroad and embassies in Israel.
The
workers said they had been trying to enter into discussions with the ministry’s
management for months, but to no avail.