Doubtful strike: Exactly four days before the start of the school year, and again this morning (Sunday), a meeting was held between representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Teachers’ Union, this in a last ditch effort to prevent a strike, after the teachers announced the escalation of their fight to improve wages.
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman appealed to the State Attorney’s Office with a request to submit an application to the National Labor Court to issue injunctions to the teachers’ union, thereby preventing them from holding a strike on September 1st. Earlier he tweeted on his Twitter account: “I am happy that the Minister of Education and the CEO of her office visited an ultra-orthodox educational institution this morning on the occasion of the opening of the school year, by the way there are no strikes there even if the Histadrut wants it. I expect all parties to make a real effort and also to prevent a strike in the rest of the educational institutions so that all Israeli students start the school year as a series on September 1.”
A strike in supervised nurseries in protest of wages
In the meantime, on September 1st, a strike is expected in the supervised daycare centers, while this Wednesday the nannies’ demonstration will take place in front of the Prime Minister’s house demanding a salary increase, but not at the expense of the parents.
The 4,000 teaching nannies are protesting that the promised rate increase will give each nannies an average increase of 60 shekels per month, and many of them will even lose 150 shekels each month. It should be noted that the nannies are neither self-employed nor hired, as they are defined by the state as independent even though there is no single dimension of independence in their work.
As explained by the Power Workers Union, their working conditions are strictly dictated by the state: the working hours (about 11 hours a day), vacation days, dozens of work procedures, the wage (lower than the minimum hourly wage, and they are forbidden to raise it even by one shekel) and more. On the other hand, they do not receive rights as tenants – without a paycheck or basic social conditions. Due to the conditions of their employment, the nursery nannies union petitioned the High Court of Justice. In response, the state undertook to convene the price committee (a professional committee between the Ministry of Finance and the Economy), which recommended raising the rate for nurseries in the coming school year by approximately NIS 550 per month, but the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Economy decided Reduce the increase by about 20% and divide it into two installments – one third in the coming year and two thirds in the next year.