Government threat: Public sector employees might be forced to return a NIS 6,000 grant given to them

The department in charge of wages at the Ministry of Finance contacted all government bodies, clarifying that workers in public workplaces who do not join the framework agreement will be forced to return in August the NIS 6,000 salary increase they received in March. The measure is intended to put pressure on workers' committees to sign the framework agreement with the state, although its final text has not yet been fully agreed upon and is not known.
The framework agreement for the wages of public sector workers, established at the beginning of March, established a gradual wage increase over six years, in addition to a NIS 6,000 grant for each worker. The grant was paid in March, before Passover, and was a down payment for the implementation of the agreement, as the parties are still negotiating.
The framework agreement applies immediately to less than 100,000 employees in the civil service, represented by the Histadrut. However, in practice it should be expanded to about 300,000 employees, including employees of local authorities and employees of government companies.
With the establishment of the agreement, each management was given the option to choose whether it joins the framework agreement, in accordance with the understandings with the workers' committee therein. Almost all the significant entities in the public sector announced their accession to the agreement, and therefore their employees received the grant. On the other hand, some small committees, in the aerospace industry for example, demanded a separate agreement with the state and did not receive the grant.
A refund of NIS 6,000 in one payment is a very significant amount for disadvantaged workers, which will burden them with many difficulties. Therefore, the duty imposed by the salary commissioner to return the money may be used as a means of improper pressure against the committees.
The mere giving of the grant to all employees, regardless of joining the agreement, is blessed. However, according to sources in the field, the expectation was that the chairman of the Histadrut, Arnon Bar-David, would exercise his authority and make it clear to the salary commissioner that in any case there is no point in returning the money, since even committees that will not join the large framework agreement will eventually sign a similar agreement that includes the grant.
The more difficult problem is, as mentioned, that the workers have not yet seen the full agreement. Some of the committees fear that the final agreement may include additional concessions by Bar David in a way that would give flexibility to the companies' managements, and therefore some are still opposed to it.
The Histadrut stated in response: "In the March salary, public sector employees were paid an advance on account of the grant in the amount of NIS 6,000, by virtue of the framework agreement that is expected to be signed soon. An advance in currency should be offset against the actual payment, and according to the original directive, the offset of the grant against the actual payment was supposed to occur in the June salary. We are in the middle And an accelerated delivery in order to complete the terms of the framework agreement as soon as possible, and in order not to harm the employees, the offsetting of the grant against the actual payment was postponed until August, so that none of the employees will be required to repay the advance on account of the one-time grant."