Chairman Moshe Gafni of the Knesset Finance Committee said on Thursday afternoon that the committee will hold an additional discussion in the coming days on the layoff of a quarter of the worldwide working staff of Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries over the next two years, and that it will take every possible step so that minimizing the number of workers who will be harmed.
Gafni spoke with Teva's management in the hour before Teva's management announced the layoffs and the company told him that it was trying to minimize damage on the closing of factories and dismissals. The 1,750 Israeli layoffs are a little more than the number bandied about in the media since yesterday.