Trade Union Friends of Israel

Middle East Trade Union News

Histadrut and employers agree on pensions for all

The Histadrut Labour Federation and the Federation of Israeli Economic Organizations (FIEO), which represents the country's large private employers, recently signed an agreement in principle to provide all salaried workers in Israel with pension coverage.

Employers' associations for industries in which most workers do not have pension coverage, including the Israel Chambers of Commerce and organizations representing the self-employed, are expected to ratify the deal on Wednesday.

Other FIEO members, such as the Israel Manufacturers' Association and organizations that hoteliers and contractors, have been providing pensions schemes for their workers for years.

Implementation of the new plan is scheduled to start in January 2008.

Under the plan, every worker will be insured for up to the average wage, now NIS 7,440 a month. The pension plans will include not only a retirement pension, but also coverage for disability and pension benefits for survivors in case of death.

The deal is considered a significant achievement for the Histadrut and its chairman, Ofer Eini, who is preparing for national trade union elections in mid-May. This is the first time that an agreement to provide pensions for all workers has been reached among all employer organisations, without exception.

In the past, various bodies representing business sectors in the service sector, such as the Chambers of Commerce and the self-employed, have objected to pension rights for all workers, due to the costs for employers, who will be required to contribute to the pension plan on the workers' behalf as well. However, these bodies have recently become convinced that the step is necessary.

The new agreement will make the Finance Ministry's mandatory pension plan superfluous. The treasury announced a proposal to require pensions for all workers starting in 2010.

The Histadrut had objected to the proposal, seeing in it state intervention through legislation in labour relations, and a threat to its power.

The Manufacturers' Association, led by Shraga Brosh, also objected to the treasury plan, saying that it failed to take into consideration differences among various industries. Brosh, who is also the chairman of the FIOE, instead acted to reach agreement among all employers on a separate plan, and succeeded.

Other News

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Surge of violence in the Gaza Strip and West Bank

Following a rocket attack from Gaza into Sderot on Saturday 21st April, Israel launched an air strike to destroy the rocket launching cell. The attack killed one man in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel has also been conducting operations in the West Bank. On Sunday 22 April, soldiers killed two members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, including a bomb maker who had been wanted by Israel for more than three years.

On Saturday 21 April, in a separate incident, Palestinians masked gunmen bombed and set fire to the American International School in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City. The attack is part of a recent wave of over 40 bombings, carried out by suspected Islamic radicals, directed against Internet cafes, pharmacies, music stores and other recreational centres in the Gaza Strip.

UN concern with arms smuggling to Hezbollah

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Syria on 24 April for talks with President Bashar al-Asad. The talks focused on Syria’s refusal to support setting up an international tribunal to try those implicated in the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

On 24 April the UN Security Council expressed its “serious concern” at mounting information of arms smuggling to Hezbollah in violation of UN Resolution 1701 and authorised an independent UN mission to monitor the Syrian-Lebanese border. The UNSC report reiterated calls on Syria “to take further measures to reinforce controls at the border” but Syria has threatened to close its border with Lebanon if any such monitoring mission is deployed.

IAEA confirms Iran begun making nuclear fuel

The IAEA confirmed that Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant at the Natanz complex on Wednesday 18 April. The IAEA said that inspectors had visited the plant on the 15 April and could confirm that 1,312 centrifuges were running and that uranium was being fed into them. Iran has doubled the number of centrifuges in Natanz and plans to have 3000 running by the end of May