5,000 employees of the health professions in Israel return to work

all employees of the health professions in Israel, including physiotherapists, dietitians, speech therapists, occupational therapists, hygienists, genetic counselors and art and art therapists will return to work. It will affect 5,000 workers in hospitals and in the community, employed by the Ministry of Health, Clalit Health Services, Meuhedet Health Fund, Hadassah Hospital, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, mental health centers and other institutions. It was decided at the end of a hearing in the Tel Aviv District Labor Court.

 Court Judge Ofira Dagan-Tuctemberg ordered the parties, the unionized workers through the Histadrut and representatives of the state and Clalit Health Services, to hold intensive negotiations regarding the workers' conditions until June 21, with the aim of reaching agreements.
 
The workers argued that the lack of standards recently led to extraordinary workloads with which they find it difficult to cope. Histadrut workers also claim that their employers make extensive use of indirect forms of employment, in violation of the collective bargaining agreements. The Histadrut declared a labor dispute in January of this year, when on Sunday they began to strike - to this day

The background to the strike was, among other things, a severe shortage of standards for the employment of workers in the paramedical sector, which has led to exceptional workload and the expansion of abusive forms of employment, severely affecting both the workers and the quality of service provided to patients.
 The decision to begin organizational steps came after a long period in which the Health Workers Union headed by Eli Gabai repeatedly warned the state representatives of the collapse of the system and the serious implications of the under-allocation of standards in the field. It should be noted that after all the union's repeated requests to the state were nullified, the Histadrut declared a labor dispute on the matter in January 2018. The efforts of the Health Workers' Union to resolve the crisis through negotiations were not seriously addressed by the other side, and therefore the strike was decided. The conflict: massive use of employment forms designed to circumvent the direct deal and the provisions of the collective bargaining agreements, severely harming the workers 'organizational power, and the workers' representation of a severe workload, endangering the physical and mental health of workers and exposing employees to threats from non-employees Receive adequate treatment, due to th The workers are called upon to arrange serious and practical negotiations on the issues that led to the crisis.
 Eli Gabbai, chairman of the Union of Health Workers in the Histadrut, said: "Unfortunately, the many efforts we invested in bridging the gaps with representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and the Clalit Health Services Administration proved futile. The health professionals are now in an impossible situation that confronts them not only with an extraordinary workload and exploitative employment patterns, but also with severe ethical and moral dilemmas. Hundreds of patients do not receive their treatment on time, and excellent workers are forced to leave the system only so that they can close the month, and it is inconceivable that such a large percentage of the workers who are currently serving in the public health system are employed independently, As employees of research funds Everything changed organizational measures to avoid but can not go on like this anymore. The system has reached the point of collapse. "