On the backdrop of record layoffs during the month of January, the employees of the Employment Service have announced that they will begin a strike Wednesday morning.
“We are at the point of collapse,” explains workers’ union chairman Aharon Hotobeli. “We will strike until they bring in more manpower to help us.”
As of Wednesday, there will be no reception hours in any of the offices nationwide.
The strike announcement did not come as a surprise. In light of the increasing layoff statistics over the past few months, the Employment Service workers say their requests for increased manpower have gone unanswered. Three weeks ago, they announced a “work dispute” – the step that must be taken at least two weeks before a strike.
"Every clerk deals with some 200 people a day, which is an impossible number," Hotobeli said. "It leads to physical and verbal violence on the part of those who come for help and does not allow us to provide reasonable and proper service."
Hotobeli attacked the decision-makers “who choose to ignore the anguish of hundreds of thousands of unemployed and prefer to waste millions of shekels on pilot programs like ‘Lights for Employment’ instead of providing additional manpower for the Employment Service.”
“Lights of Unemployment” is an 18-month-old program that seeks to quickly return certain sectors of the unemployed back to the work force. It includes incentives for employers, training, help in opening a private business and even aid in travel to work and finding arrangements for children.
It was announced this morning (Tuesday) that a record number of Israelis had been laid off in January – nearly 20,000, almost twice as much as the usual average. The previous month, December 2008, had also set a record, with 17,500 layoffs.