The Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court on Wednesday evening agreed to a request by the Teachers' Union to conduct intensive negotiations with the state until Friday at 8:00 a.m. and to report its results to the court at that time.
For the time being, the court has not issued an injunction against a teachers’ strike at the start of the school year this coming Sunday.
The Teachers' Union declared several labor disputes with the Education and Finance ministries earlier this month, threatening that it will not start the school year on time unless these issues are resolved.
The Teachers' Union attacked the Treasury earlier on Wednesday, saying, "The Treasury’s claims continue to be demagoguery for its own sake. Instead of addressing the issue of the robbery of the sick days and of the pensions, they are talking about young teachers and trying to divert public opinion."
"There are 120,000 teachers in Israel who have become the government's punching bag and it is convenient to drop additional tasks on them as well as to not pay them what is due to them. Salaries for new teaching staff will be discussed in the new wage agreement, which cannot be discussed right now because we are in a transitional government. The Treasury’s people should decide what they want - solutions or slogans," added the Teachers' Union.
The Secretary General of the Teachers’ Union, Yaffa Ben David, said, "The Treasury unfortunately continues to drag its feet. From the day I took up the position I have been negotiating with the Treasury. They've had years to solve this and they choose to drag their feet. There is a real problem here - there are teaching staff who do not receive the pension they deserve because the Treasury does not know how to calculate the pension for them."
"I will not sign any agreement until I know that all the teaching staff will receive what they deserve. I appeal to the court on behalf of all teaching staff in Israel: The teaching staff cannot be held hostage by the state. All options have been exhausted. Without a strike, the Treasury will have no incentive to reach an agreement,” she added.