A strike that was to begin Thursday morning in government hospitals has been called off. State workers managed to reach an agreement with the Health and Finance ministries during last-minute negotiations on Wednesday night. Details of the agreement have not yet been released.
Workers had threatened to strike over what they termed an unreasonable workload. The ratio of administrative workers and other non-medical staff to hospital beds has been declining since 1980, workers argued. In 2005, the government slashed 130 hospital jobs, some of which were later restored.
Union heads accused the government of failing to follow through on a commitment to hire 40 workers to fill previously cut positions. They also complained over the low salaries given to some employees, such as cleaning staff.
Senior hospital administrators had urged the workers' union heads to talk with the Finance Ministry in order to avoid impeding hospital care and causing suffering. The workers in question are responsible for a variety of tasks, including cleaning, setting up appointments and providing sterile equipment used by surgeons.
The strike would have left emergency rooms operating on a limited Sabbath schedule, while voluntary surgeries would have been canceled and outpatient clinics closed. Workers had committed to continuing their jobs as usual in intensive care units, delivery wards and rooms used for infertility treatments and dialysis.
Professor Ze'ev Rotstein, the director of Sheva Hospital, issued an appeal Wednesday asking workers to avoid “causing great suffering to patients” and reminding them that among those currently being treated in Sheva are soldiers wounded in the Cast Lead operation in Gaza.
Officials in the Finance and Health ministries had criticized union heads for calling a strike. “We see no justification for a strike as negotiations are ongoing,” Health Ministry spokesmen said. The Finance Ministry accused workers of “conducting their struggle at the expense of the patients.”