The Health and Finance Ministries on Tuesday requested that the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court issue an injunction forbidding the Israel Medical Association and doctors working in public hospitals from further work stoppages.The requests stated that the IMA is taking advantage of its power to advance the interests of its members. The government ministries added that they would offer doctors accelerated negotiations, monitored by the court or arbitration.RELATED:Treasury threatens to take striking doctors to labor court 'Some progress made in doctors-Treasury negotiations'IMA head calls on PM to get involved in doctors' disputeThe court was to discuss the request Wednesday afternoon.var zflag_nid='794'; var zflag_cid='1091/988'; var zflag_sid='122'; var zflag_width='300'; var zflag_height='250'; var zflag_sz='9'; Despite the request for an injunction, doctors continued their sanctions in the center of the country. The affected hospitals will be Sheba, Tel Aviv Sourasky, both the Beilinson and Hasharon Campuses of the Rabin Medical Center, Schneider, Wolfson, Assaf Harofeh, Meir, Shalvata, Geha, Beit Rivka, Beit Loewenstein, Pardesia, Netanya’s geriatric hospital and Abarbanel. On Thursday, only oncological surgery and other urgent operations were expected to be performed in all the hospitals. The rest of hospital activities were to carry on. The Treasury and the IMA have been negotiating a new wage contract more than a decade after talks over a previous contract led to 127 days of sanctions in 2000. The labor court, the doctors said, “is not a threat for us, as the IMA is taking moderate steps out of responsibility to the public,” and when the court goes into the depth of the problems and sees the way negotiations have been held, it will be on the IMA’s side.
