1,721 public sector wage anomalies were identified - most of them among physicians

1,721 public sector wage anomalies were identified among physicians last year. This emerges from the report of the wage anomalies to the public sector of the wage commissioner Kobi Bar-Natan regarding the activity of the enforcement unit in the last two years, which was published on Tuesday.
About 62% of the employees who exceed the ranking of doctors are employed by Clalit Health Fund. During the past year a collective hearing was sent to doctors at this fund. In light of this, it was decided to classify them as alleged exceptions (all the anomalies identified in the past year and their treatment has not yet been completed). In second place in the number of anomalies are research workers (429).
In 2018, alleged deviations were found in about 10% of all budgeted and supported entities (75 entities out of 785 entities) compared to 12% in 2017.
Of all the bodies, 45 are local authorities, 11 are government companies, 8 are corporations, 7 are supported bodies in the higher education system and 4 bodies in the health system. The relatively positive side: "Only" in 39% of bodies where wage deviations were found, the number of employees who received deviations was higher than five.
Among the bodies whose payroll department systematically finds irregularities year after year is Elta Electronic Industries (a subsidiary of IAI), which has consistently had wage irregularities since 2014, as has the Airports Authority.
Among the investigation files whose treatment ended during 2019, it was found that a lawsuit was filed against the director of the Human Resources Department at Kinneret Academic College after approving salary deviations for heads of departments at the college, ignoring the guidelines of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the MLAG.
The director of the department was reprimanded and disqualified from serving in any position at the college for five years. A lawsuit was also filed against the director of the human resources department in the Kiryat Malachi municipality, who approved salary irregularities for himself and senior employees in the municipality, despite explicit instructions from the Ministry of the Interior. The same department manager was fired and banned from holding any position in the municipality for six months.
The total savings as a result of the enforcement unit's activities in 2019 amount to NIS 602 million (of which NIS 3.24 million was returned to the funds of the entities that paid the wage irregularities), and about NIS 578 million constitute future savings of about half a billion shekels. Employees of the administrative staff at Bar Ilan University. In December last year, an agreement was signed between the workers' committee, the management, the Histadrut and the Ministry of Finance regulating the anomalies, as a result of which the salaries of administrative staff were reduced by NIS 8.4 million and at the same time the workers will be required to return NIS 11 million.
An interesting fact that emerges from the report is that out of 52 judgments handed down by the tribunal since the unit was established (the first of which was given in 2011) 51 ended in conviction and only one acquitted. Controversial, the wage anomalies detected are unequivocally illegal.
Bar Natan noted in the report that last year “the development of a‘ real-time enforcement ’system was completed, which is based on analytical tools and statistical models and detects wage irregularities immediately and in real time. The system produces effective deterrence, which reduces wage irregularities, significantly shortens the period of payment of the excess wage and the duration of treatment of the deviation. As a result, the accumulation of wage irregularities is less, and the amounts that an employee who received an overpayment is required to return are lower. "