More than 5,000 employees of the government-owned Bezek Telephone and Telecommunications Corp. continued a crippling strike Thursday, in defiance of back-to-work orders issued by the Tel Aviv Labor Court.
The strike affects only the Tel Aviv area, where overseas telephone switchboards are unmanned and service personnel are not answering calls for repairs and assistance.
AM radio and UHF television transmitters, which Bezek engineers operate for the Israel Broadcasting Authority, are also out, but FM radio and VHF television continue to broadcast.
The strikers are demanding payment of a 6 percent wage increase granted government employees earlier this year, but Bezek management says the company is not subject to the increase.
It contends that the company was established as an independent, self-sustaining corporation, partly to allow it to work out its own salary scales with employees and also to offer higher bonuses for efficiency.
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