agreement: provide special compensation for employees of public health laboratories due to Corona crisis

The Histadrut and the Treasury have concluded an agreement to provide special compensation for employees of public health laboratories and government hospitals, who carry out the tests to detect the corona virus. This brought to an end the labor dispute declared by the Histadrut a week ago.
The conflict has been declared to all public sector lab workers, claiming that in the face of the outbreak of the Corona virus, they are under-burdened, suffering from personnel shortages to perform the required examinations and are not adequately rewarded for their work, endangering their health and the health of their family members. A remuneration arrangement will be applied to employees in public health laboratories and government hospitals, which, according to the Histadrut, are required to "conduct tests to detect corona virus on a large scale, at a fast time and in constant availability."
"This agreement was signed with appreciation and gratitude to the lab workers who do days of strenuous work," they said in the Histadrut.
The conflict was declared against the spread of the Corona in Israel in recent months, requiring all employees of the hospital laboratories, provincial laboratories, hospital laboratories, public health laboratories and the Institute of Audit and Standards, to join and be at the forefront of the fight to stop the spread of the virus. Employees claimed that the situation resulted in a manpower shortage to conduct the tests, in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Health and Employers. On the other hand, the situation led to an increase in unskilled, unskilled and unauthorized manpower - contrary to public health regulations.

"In addition, there is a demand for additional work hours beyond the standard without proper and agreed remuneration. Negotiations between the workers' representatives and employers to sign a collective agreement that will regulate the work format during the crisis and the compensation in the garden, will end in a dead end," they clarified.