IBA workers block IBC management from entering authority headquarters
By GREER FAY CASHMANUpdated: APRIL 10, 2017 00:42IBA HEADQUARTERS is located on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Israel Broadcasting Authority workers blocked the Israel Broadcasting Corporation management from entering IBA headquarters in the old Shaare Zedek building on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road on Sunday morning.The IBA and IBC management teams had been scheduled to hold a joint meeting to discuss the human resource transition on the projected closure of the IBA and the inauguration of the IBC.But IBA workers bearing placards stood at the entrance to the building and refused to allow the IBC team to enter.Israel Broadcasting Authority ( IBA ) staff in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv protest against closure, on March 19, 2017 (credit: REUTERS)The IBA workers were protesting the inequality in the compromise decision reached between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, whereby the news division of the IBC will be transferred to the IBA, which would operate it under a different name. Following the decision, coalition chairman David Bitan announced that none of the news people from the IBC would lose their jobs, as there are very few people not connected with the IBA who had been hired on a regular basis. Most of the people hired had been freelancers.It had been understood all along that IBA workers who had been hired by the IBC would remain in the employ of the IBA until its closure, and only then would they transfer to the IBC.But there are hundreds of IBA workers who are not part of the news divisions of either Channel One or Reshet Bet, and were not hired for any position at the IBC, meaning they will soon be unemployed. They, as well as their more fortunate colleagues, say it is unfair that people who have spent years in the employ of the IBA and have proven their abilities are being sent home, whereas no one from the IBC is being treated in the same manner.