Premier Shimon Peres said yesterday that the government was determined to dismiss another 7,000 civil service workers. This, he said, would be in addition to the first round of dismissals, yet to be implemented, of 7,000 employes. The total number in the dismissal moves amounts to six percent of the civil service work force.
The government wants to go ahead with the dismissals because it claims that the Histadrut has continued to reject further cuts in the wages. Peres said, during a visit to the development town of Shlomi in the Galilee, that the government and Histadrut remained for apart on the issue. The Treasury, at the same time, expressed concern at the slow pace of dismissals in the public sector, which it warned, could jeopardize the entire economic program.
The civil service union, meanwhile, stepped up its demands to introduce a five-day work week into the public sector as an alternative to mass dismissals. Deputy Secretary of the Clerical Workers Union, Moshe Beit-Dagan, said a five-day work week could immediately save the government 10 percent in wages, as well as certain operating costs. The worker, for his part, would lose between five and seven percent of his net pay.
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