Dozens of train conductors call in sick, in protest

For the second time this year, employees of the Israel Railways Company called in sick Tuesday night in an organized action to protest new guidelines for creating the employee work schedule.

The move was apparently conceived as a response to management’s decision to introduce a new, automated system that would allocate the workers’ shifts instead of having shift supervisors determine the work schedule.

The old system at Israel Railways had allowed supervisors to divvy up shifts unequally, giving their friends more convenient and profitable shifts, management said in explaining the switch to a computerized system.

The company had recently sent a warning letter to all of it workers, according to Ynet, advising them that “serious steps” would be taken against those employees who are caught feigning illness and playing hooky from work.

Yaron Hadari, human resources and logistics director for Israel Railways, wrote in the letter, “It is clear to everyone that this behavior can cause disruptions to the movement of trains and harm to the company’s efforts to add and improve the service given to passengers, as well as damage to the company’s ability to allow workers to take vacations. It goes without saying that we condemn this behavior and expect that such actions will have no part in the accepted norms of behavior among employees and managers.”