Histadrut officially resumed negotiations on a new wage agreement with the government

Seven months after the discussions on a new wage agreement in the economy for the public sector were halted due to the fall of the government and the dissolution of the Knesset, the heads of the Ministry of Finance and the Histadrut officially resumed negotiations. An increase of 2.5% every year until 2027. A demand that will probably not be fully accepted by the Treasury, certainly not in the first stage of the negotiations.
Today (Sunday) the Director General of the new Ministry of Finance, Shlomi Heisler, and the Chairman of the Histadrut, Arnon Bar David, met in Jerusalem and agreed on the renewal of negotiations. The meeting was also attended by the Commissioner of Budgets at the Treasury, Yogev Gerdos, the Acting Commissioner for Wages and Labor Agreements, Efi Malkin, who has only just been appointed in place of Kobi Bar Natan who is retiring from the Treasury, the Acting Chairman of the Histadrut, Roy Yaakov, and the Deputy Director of Policy and Economics at the Histadrut, Adam Blumenberg.
In the previous two years, there were lengthy talks between representatives of the Treasury and the Histadrut to try and reach a new agreement in the economy, but the parties were far from reaching an agreement. In the Israeli economy, there has actually been no wage agreement in the public sector since 2017, when in January 2020 the last pulse of the previous framework agreement was carried out - a wage increase of 1.95%.
  Last year, the "package deal" agreement reached regarding raising the minimum wage, with the fall of the government, was also not implemented. According to the agreement, in 2022 no wage increases were to be given in the economy. The minimum wage was supposed to rise gradually for the first time in five years from April 2022 until 2026 in five increments from NIS 5,300 to NIS 6,000. In the same agreement that did not come to fruition, it was stipulated that during the year 2022, a new salary agreement for 2023 would be signed between the parties, in which it would be agreed on the payment of a salary increase to the employees at a rate of between 1% and 2% per year. Now the Histadrut demands a higher increase as mentioned.
It was also agreed that in the public sector it will be possible to work one day a week from home. The work week will not be shortened and the plan for six long weekends will not be carried out. However, one vacation day will be added for employees in the public sector, from 12 to 13 days a year. In the end, the "package deal" did not take place, partly because the Labor and Welfare Committee of the Knesset refused to allow the minimum wage to increase by only NIS 100 last year, and now the minimum wage will increase this coming April according to the linkage to the average wage.