Labor and Social Affairs Minister Haim Katz has distributed a memorandum on a government bill that is supposed to reduce the scope of work permits on the Sabbath in accordance with an agreement reached between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and heads of the haredi-religious Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, against the backdrop of the parties' opposition to Israel Railways infrastructure work on the Sabbath.
According to the memorandum, the Hours of Work and Rest Law will be changed so that regarding the granting of work permits on the Sabbath, the Minister of Labor will also take into account consideration of the Jewish tradition, the degree of harm to the public space where the permit is requested, the welfare of the worker and the existence of an alternative that does not require work on the Sabbath. Haredi sources estimated that the new law "will significantly reduce the work of the train and other bodies on the Sabbath."