Talks between the Trade Union Federation (Histadrut) and the Treasury on the matter of public sector workers have broken down entirely, after a meeting between Histadrut chairman Arnon Ben-David and the Treasury's representative, Kobi Bar-Natan, failed to produce a solution acceptable to both sides.
Following the meeting, Ben-David said, "We cannot allow such a sharp blow to fall on 700,000 employees who are the people powering the economy and working day and night for the benefit of the entire public. We must not let the coronavirus crisis be exploited in such a way as to reduce wages for public sector workers, when the government is concurrently handing out money to workers from other sectors - both to those who are need of the extra funds, and to those who are not.
"My job is to protect every single employee in the State of Israel," he continued, "and to improve conditions for everyone. I can only hope that the Finance Minister has the same interests in mind."