ISRAEL
Support staff at Israeli diplomatic missions around the world have gone on strike in protest against the Foreign Ministry’s failure to pay them increased compensation promised a year ago.
The compensation issue was supposed to have been settled in an agreement between the Foreign Ministry and the Knesset (Parliament) Labour, Welfare and Health Committee in 2017, closing the pay gap between support staff and diplomats.
The agreement provided for an increase in the salaries and pensions of the support staff who provide secretarial services, maintenance, security and consular services, in addition to jobs requiring local expertise.
Some are due to receive increases of as much as 10,000 shekels ($2,800), depending on their seniority.
However, differences of opinion surfaced between the Finance and Foreign Ministries over which budget the new benefits would be paid from.
The Finance Ministry said the support staff were employees of the Foreign Ministry, which should bear the cost, but the Foreign Ministry insisted that the new benefits could be paid only if the Finance Ministry footed the bill.
The Foreign Ministry said that the Finance Ministry could resolve the problem by approving “a relatively small budget increase” to cover it, but the Finance Ministry claimed it was the responsibility of every Ministry to cover the pay agreements it signs with its employees.
The Foreign Ministry declined comment to the media.
Meanwhile, the strike is expected to disrupt the operations of embassies and consulates around the world.
Jerusalem, 3 September, 2018
