Court halts school strike set for Wednesday

Judge says decision by teachers’ union to protest how sick days are docked was ‘too hasty, to put it mildly’

Backing the Education Ministry, a labor court on Tuesday granted an injunction preventing a planned school strike set for Wednesday.

The Israel Teachers Union had called the strike for kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools in a dispute with the Education Ministry over how staff are docked for sick days.

The union has demanded an end to the Education Ministry’s practice of considering each day that a staff member takes off due to illness as 1.4 days away from work.

A judge at the Tel Aviv Labor District Court said that “calling a strike at this stage of the dispute was too hasty, to put it mildly.”

“Sick days have been counted like this for 30 years and the demand for a change was only made 4 days ago,” Judge Efrat Lakser said, before ordering schools to remain open on Wednesday.

The practice came to light recently after the ministry was required by law to list on wage slips the number of actual sick days workers took and the number that they were calculated to have taken, Hadashot news reported.

“The Teachers Union approached and raised the problem with the Education Ministry, for a prolonged period of time,” the union said in a statement. “The Education Ministry for its part is dragging its feet, and does not give a clear answer about this known problem.”

Earlier this month, high school teachers ended weeks of periodic strikes across the country after the teachers’ union and the finance minister reached a new wage agreement.

The teachers’ union representing high school staff had been demanding an immediate monthly gross wage increase for entry-level teachers, from NIS 6,400 ($1,820) to NIS 8,000 ($2,275), along with a comparable raise for teachers with up to seven years’ experience. In addition, the union said that teachers who have been teaching for eight years or more must receive an extra NIS 600 ($170) a month.

“We promised and now we have delivered,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett earlier this month. “The starting salary of a teacher in Israel will be NIS 8,000.”

Under the new deal, their salaries will rise by a further 2 percent for the first seven years. In addition veteran teachers will receive a raise of NIS 480 that will be gradually introduced over four years.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.