Nochi Dankner, Chairman and CEO of IDB Holding Company, has announced that he and three other senior company officials will take a 25% pay cut. "We will do whatever we can to avoid layoffs," Dankner said.
The pay cut is effective from now until the end of 2009, and is being taken in light of the financial crisis. Yitzchak Manor, Avi Fisher and Tzvika Livnat are the other three who have agreed to have their salaries reduced.
Dankner has also asked senior management employees to take a 10% cut, and other management officials for an 8% pay deduction.
"I turn to all the directors of the holding group," Dankner wrote them, "and request that we enact measures for belt-tightening, efficiency, reductions and saving... We must do all we can to avoid firing workers. At the same time, we must be sure not to hurt the working conditions of low-salary workers. We have to make every efffort to prefer all other possible options in place of manpower cuts."
700 Security Guard Jobs Lost
At the same time, the Mishmar Guard Company announced that it was laying off its last 700 workers, after having fired 800 others in August. Yosef Liav, owner and chairman of Mishmar, blamed his company's collapse on customers not paying on time, and on the fact that banks are not giving credit because of the economic slowdown. The company has also lost several contracts of late.
Some of the 800 fired employees have found jobs with other guard companies, while others have joined the unemployed rolls. The same is expected to be true in the case of the most recent bout of lay-offs.
IDB's Dankner said that his company had been scorned when it predicted a financial crisis nearly two years ago, but that he hopes and expects that its continued belt-tightening actions "will allow us to weather this storm."
Dankner is known for his public service contributions, and chairs the IDB foundation for the community that contributes annually to organizations and various projects in the fields of education, welfare health, culture and the environment. He also holds key voluntary positions in associations such as MATAN, the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Natal.
He concludes his letter, "We must remember that the society in which we live is no less important than the company we run. Therefore, even during this period, our company will continue to integrate wide-ranging business activity with community service."