It's been almost four months that municipal welfare workers have been waging sanctions regarding their special authorities in caring for children at risk - but hardly anyone seems to have noticed. "All they want is more resources with which to care for the youth," according to Ettie Peretz, Chairperson of the Social Workers Union. "Let me give you some numbers about this painful matter," she said. "There are 340,000 youth at risk in Israel, of whom 140,000 are at a high degree of risk. 70,000 are under the care of Youth Services, and - get this - at any given point in time, 25,000 are in the care of only 450 workers, who work an equivalent of 220 full-time positions. This means that on the average, each full-time worker deals with 130 children! This is of course a monstrous number."
Ms. Peretz explained that the social workers who deal with these youth are have "special authorities granted by the Ministry of Labor and Welfare to deal with endangered children." She said that the workers' sanctions include not accepting any new cases, except those that are life-threatening, "and since Sept.1, we have not appeared in court to extend certain orders, and the like - but it must be made clear: We are not asking a penny for ourselves, and our demands involve not the slightest benefit for ourselves. We want but three things: appropriate budgets to deal with these children and their families; appropriate community services for these children; and the opening up of more positions, so that more caseworkers can deal with these children."
Ms. Peretz said that the Ministry of Labor has recently shown signs of initiating negotiations, "but if we see that these contacts lead nowhere, then on Nov. 5, the social workers will turn in their special appointments - meaning that no one will have the special authorities that are required to deal with these children… This is clearly an important issue, and it is important to publicize it."
Ms. Peretz explained that the social workers who deal with these youth are have "special authorities granted by the Ministry of Labor and Welfare to deal with endangered children." She said that the workers' sanctions include not accepting any new cases, except those that are life-threatening, "and since Sept.1, we have not appeared in court to extend certain orders, and the like - but it must be made clear: We are not asking a penny for ourselves, and our demands involve not the slightest benefit for ourselves. We want but three things: appropriate budgets to deal with these children and their families; appropriate community services for these children; and the opening up of more positions, so that more caseworkers can deal with these children."
Ms. Peretz said that the Ministry of Labor has recently shown signs of initiating negotiations, "but if we see that these contacts lead nowhere, then on Nov. 5, the social workers will turn in their special appointments - meaning that no one will have the special authorities that are required to deal with these children… This is clearly an important issue, and it is important to publicize it."