Meuhedet employees begin labor sanctions

Members of Kupat Holim Meuhedet – the country’s third-largest health fund – will not be able to undergo blood tests or give urine and other samples at community clinics starting on Thursday.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Histadrut chair Ofer Eini at Labor Court_311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Histadrut chair Ofer Eini at Labor Court_311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Members of Kupat Holim Meuhedet – the country’s third-largest health fund – will not be able to undergo blood tests or give urine and other samples at community clinics starting on Thursday.
Only in emergency cases will blood be taken, and phones will not be answered, as employees apply sanctions.
The 4,000 Meuhedet workers around the country are protesting what they call “a stalemate in negotiations and the management’s and the Treasury’s foot-dragging.”
Emergency cases include fertility, oncology and other urgent patients, the union said.
In addition, workers will not market to bring in new customers or go to hearings of workers as part of their sanctions.
Histadrut labor federation official Arnon Bar-David said the Treasury refuses to address the union’s complaints. The federation said it supports the workers fully.
Meuhedet has been in a crisis for three years, since the State Comptroller’s Office wrote a damning report on corruption by senior administrators that caused the dismissal and resignation of most of them. The director-general who took over after the scandal, Prof. Asher Elhayani, was dismissed by the board of directors without any formal accusations being filed.
But service for members has remained on a high level, with few complaints about the staffers.
Union chief Shela Ventura said the workers were sorry to cause trouble for members and always want to give the best service, but were are applying sanctions before Yom Kippur and Succot because “we had no choice. We call on the Treasury and health fund management to take responsibility and stop abandoning the staffers.”