Labor and Welfare Committee will allow Civil Service employees to stay working up to 72

The Labor and Welfare Committee chaired by MK Israel Eichler approved regulations that will allow the Civil Service Commissioner to approve an extension of service for a civil service employee up to the age of 72, thus allowing an extension of up to 5 years cumulatively from the date the employee reaches retirement age, as opposed to 4 years today.
Daniel Hershkowitz, Civil Service Commissioner, explained: "This is a technical update with great significance. When the retirement age was set at 65 at the time, the legislator realized that there might be certain situations where there would be a lack of a skilled replacement worker and then the regulations established the possibility of an extension of up to 5 cumulative years - up to a year each time when the power is in the hands of the commissioner, according to the essential need of the system. Later the retirement age was raised to 67 and the extension was not updated accordingly, so the maximum extension became 3 years. Last year we raised it to 71. And now we want to extend the option up to age 72".
Hershkovitz also noted that the request refers, among other things, to positions and professions where it is difficult to find a replacement for a person who has reached retirement age, for example in the field of medicine, where anesthesiologists, psychiatrists and geriatricians are currently lacking. Also according to him "there are cases when people are a center of knowledge or have a certain skill that you just don't want to give up". Other professions that appeared in the list of officials relevant to the regulation submitted to the committee are specialist doctor, midwife, imam and mosque announcer and more.
According to data presented by Hershkowitz at the hearing, in the past year the employment of approximately 30 workers was extended until the age of 71, most of them women, while according to his estimation, the extension of the employment to the age of 72 will be approved for 10-20 workers per year.
The chairman of the committee MK Israel Eichler said: "There is no reason why the state should not allow people who are interested in this to continue working and contribute their knowledge and experience, especially in professions and places where there is a shortage of workers with appropriate knowledge and experience."
MK Alon Shuster: "There is a trend of opening up the possibility for the continued employment of adults in many countries of the world. This allows the use of the abilities and experience of these employees and we also need to encourage it, for those who want and are suitable. In some fields, you have to take into account the issue of taking jobs and preventing the integration of young people, but in professions where there is a lack of workers and it is not possible to find replacements, I think this is natural."
Aviya Alef, the chairman of the Movement for the Purity of Morals, claimed that the proposed amendment is personal and that the Commission did not provide the explanations and data it needed to receive an extension of another year, as was required in the extension approved last year. for hundreds of employees in the coming years.
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