Government ministries were seriously disrupted by work slow-downs today as civil service employees continued to press for higher pay and other emoluments. At the Foreign Ministry, where the staff has threatened to shut down the entire foreign affairs establishment, foreign diplomats were refused entry by workers manning the gates.
Striking Welfare Ministry employees demonstrated outside the Treasury today, jeering at Finance Minister Yigal Cohen Orgad. He refused to come out to speak to them and condemned their strike as an act of cruelty toward needy welfare recipients.
A slow-down is in effect at the Interior Ministry where clerks refused to issue passports, identity cards and other official documents. At the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, officials refused to issue checks to suppliers.
The work slow-downs and stoppages at the government offices are a manifestation of widespread labor unrest owing mainly to the erosion of salaries by triple-digit inflation. The Foreign Ministry employees say they are not seeking raises but only a commitment by the Treasury to equalize their pay with that of employees of Massed, the intelligence agency.
They say they do the same type of work and have threatened to shut down the Foreign Ministry and all Israeli diplomatic missions overseas if their demands arc not met by the middle of this month.
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