Finance Minister Yoram Aridor and Histadrut Secretary General Yeruham Meshel signed a new wage contract for public employes late Thursday night. As a result, Israelis were able to usher in the new year freed from the threat of a paralyzing general strike which would hove affected virtually oil government services from the local to the national level.
The agreement, which provides for an across the-board 12 percent wage hike for all civil service employes was seen as a retreat by Aridor. The Finance Minister would not budge for weeks above the nine percent increase he originally acceded to But as mare and more civil servants joined the strike each day for the past week, suspending classes for over a million school children and allowing garbage to pile up and fester on the streets, Premier Menachem Begin came under increasing pressure from elected officials to intervene.
Begin normally allows his Finance Minister a free hand to run the economy. But this time, with the situation assuming crisis proportions, he reportedly prevailed on Aridor to yield.
The 12 percent hike was demanded by Histadrut to compensate civil servants for the erosion of their real wages by triple digit inflation. it is linked to a new system of cost-of-living increase payments of a flat four percent monthly. The amount would be subject to review every three months to allow for possible increases during the preceding quarter.
Histadrut had been insisting on a 12 percent pay raise and continuation of C.O.L. increase payments every three months of up to 80 percent of the consumer price rise index. The 12 percent will be retroactive to September. The C.O.L. payments system is subject to further negotiations.
Teachers, university lecturers, nurses and social workers refused to accept the accord signed over the weekend. But they said they would adjudicate their demands without resorting to a strike.
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