Social Workers protest
Social Workers protestIsrael news photo: Hizky Ezra

The social workers' strike has ended days after it began. The decision to go back to work was reached after a session at the National Labor Court, held at the request of the Finance Ministry. The Ministry had appealed a decision by the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court last week, not to issue back-to-work orders to the striking social workers.

The social workers' union decided in the course of the session to accept the agreement reached last week between the Histadrut national labor union and the Finance Ministry. The deal called for the social workers to receive a 25% wage hike. 
 
The social workers had rejected this deal last week and demanded a higher raise. The Finance Ministry rejected this position.
 
Monday, the social workers reversed their position and decided to accept the deal struck last week. However, a minor modification was made: instead of a 40.5-hour work week, the work week would be 39 hours long. The pay hike would be cut correspondingly, to 22.5% instead of 25%.