The Standards Institute began laying off 150 of the 873 employees

The Standards Institute began laying off 150 of the 873 employees it employs following the standardization reform initiated by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy as part of the import reform intended to facilitate the import of products into Israel by removing a barrier in the form of the Israeli standard.
The Standards Institute had for decades a monopoly on testing imported products, and those produced in Israel. These are tests that cost up to NIS 10,000. Each test takes a long time and is accompanied by quite a bit of bureaucracy. The cost of complying with the strict Israeli standard was passed on to the consumer, making it difficult to import a variety of products into Israel.
Now, according to the reform, about 80% of imports based on Israeli standards, are not required to undergo laboratory tests upon entering Israel. The Israeli route includes imports on the basis of an importer's declaration for compliance with approximately 420 Israeli standards, without delivery tests at inspection institutes in Israel. Among the products: carpets, diapers, school bags, dishwashing liquid, tampons, condoms and bicycles. About 85% of the standards that touch tens of thousands of products will enter Israel on the basis of a declaration of conformity to international standards.
The international route includes the transfer of responsibility for standardization to laboratories abroad: about 300 standards covering thousands of products will be transferred to this route, and within the framework of the reform it will be possible to import them based on the importer's declaration of conformity to international standards, while presenting a test certificate from certified laboratories in Europe, the USA and Australia . In hundreds of products in the areas of food, energy, and soon probably also in perfumes, the importers will be able to import the products that meet the official standard of the country where they were produced, according to lists established by the appointed ministries, when only a declaration will suffice.
Therefore, the new reform actually makes many positions redundant within the Standards Institute, which eventually led to the expected layoffs.
The Standards Institute: "This is a retirement plan for 150 employees due to the import reform. Most of the employees retire voluntarily in retirement arrangements agreed together with the General Histadrut, the Workers' Committee and the Pay Commissioner at the Ministry of Finance, as is customary in the public sector."