The long, drawn-out negotiations on a new public-sector wage and employment agreement ended in success Friday, when a two-year pact was signed by Finance Ministry and Histadrut representatives.
The accord, already agreed upon, calls for an 11 percent pay hike over the next two years.
The fresh element in the new contract was agreement on a five-day, 42-and-a-half-hour work week to replace the present six-day, 45-hour week.
The agreement to a long-sought reduced work week had been worked out in principle last Monday between Finance Minister Moshe Nissim and Histadrut Secretary-General Yisrael Kessar.
But the accord was followed by days of discord over when the new hours would take effect, and which government corporations would be exempt from paying the raises.
Histradut, the trades union federation, agreed to do away with the shorter hours worked in summer in order to equalize the number of hours worked each week throughout the year.
It was decided to hammer out the reduction in hours worked in two stages. Beginning in January, public-sector workers’ hours will be reduced to 43-and-a-half hours per week, and will be reduced to the agreed-upon 42-and-a-half hours on April 1.
The extra day off will probably be taken on Fridays, which are already a half day in Israel. An exception will be made in the banks, which prefer to close Sundays in accordance with banks worldwide.
The leaders of the three unions of professionals — engineers, technicians and the union of social science and humanities graduates — refused to sign the accord, saying the clauses in the agreement concerning government industrial corporations were unacceptable.
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