Foreign Ministry labor dispute trips new ambassadors

Workers union instructs employees not to handle paperwork, and thus to delay envoy appointments to UN, Italy, Brazil, UK

By Stuart Winer

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

20 August 2015, 11:19 am

Edit

Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

The Foreign Ministry workers’ union said it would hold up processing the latest ambassadorial appointments, including that of Israel’s new envoy to the United Nations, former deputy defense minister Danny Danon.

The move, announced Tuesday, is part of a labor dispute between the diplomatic service and the Treasury over low wages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made the appointments, is also the foreign minister. In recent weeks, he has appointed several allies and confidants to key diplomatic posts, including Dani Dayan as ambassador to Brazil, Fiamma Nirenstein to Italy, Mark Regev to the UK and Danny Danon to the UN.

If their appointments are not processed, the new envoys will be unable to obtain diplomatic passports to travel to their new assignments.

Fiamma Nirenstein (screen capture YouTube/radioies)

The union announced the labor dispute 10 days ago and instructed employees not to print documents for the diplomats’ families, including passports; not to sign their children up for schools in the target countries; and not to transfer their paperwork to officials in their intended countries, who cannot then approve the appointments.

In addition, the union also instructed workers not to provide the new envoys with training courses and background reviews, and not to have any work meetings with them, the Hebrew-language news site Ynet reported.

The union also told its members to stubbornly oppose the shuttering of seven diplomatic missions that have been approved for closure by the government. Employees will freeze any activity related to closing the missions such as terminating contracts, notifying workers they have been made redundant, and advertising vehicles for sale.

In July 2013, Foreign Ministry workers agreed to suspend similar sanctions that had been steadily increasing over five months in a labor dispute over work conditions. At the time, Israel’s newly appointed ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, was caught up in delays that prevented him receiving his diplomatic passport and other paperwork. In November 2014, the union ended that strike after it signed a comprehensive agreement with Finance Ministry officials.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.