Train disruptions expected due to mass ‘illnesses’

Some disruptions were expected in Israel’s train schedules Wednesday, as 41 employees called in sick Tuesday night, leaving the work schedule with gaping holes and forcing the management to reduce the frequency of some of the trains.

Tuesday’s mass call-in was the second of the year, as employees declared a wildcat action to protest new guidelines for the employee work schedule.

Speaking on Army Radio Wednesday morning, a management representative said the vast majority of trains would run on schedule. On Tuesday, an official letter was sent to the Histadrut labor union to try and reach a solution. Letters were also sent to the employees who stayed at home, urging them to return to work.

The workers’ 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 its workers, according to Ynet, advising them that “serious steps” would be taken against employees 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.”