Yitzchak Perry, head of the Social Workers’ Union, expressed frustration on Monday following a month of sanctions. When workers in Ben Gurion Airport or the Tel Aviv stock market go on strike everyone hurries to fix the problem, he said, “but when it comes to the poor, it doesn’t interest anyone.”

Municipal social workers have refused to accept new cases or submit professional opinions to courts for more than one month. Perry explained that the workers were not striking for a better salary, “although it would be worthwhile to fight for that as well.”

Instead, he said, workers are asking the state to employ more social workers. Workers currently have so many cases that they are unable to provide proper care, he said. Social workers dealing with children have an average of 150 clients, those working with the elderly have 400-500 cases at once, and those working with families have 100-150 families, he said. Not only does the excess workload lead to a lack of proper care for many clients, he said, but those in need of help often become angry due to the social workers’ lack of time, which sometimes leads to physical attacks on workers.