Histadrut reaches deal with employers

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The agreement over contract workers will not stop Wednesday's general public sector strike, since the Treasury still opposes a similar deal.

Sources inform ''Globes'' that Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini and Economic Organizations Liaisons Committee chairman Shraga Brosh have reached a deal on contract workers, leaving the Ministry of Finance out in the cold.

Under the deal, cleaners employed by agencies on a full-time basis with at least 1-2 years seniority will be hired by companies as regular employees. The job terms of the remaining contract employees will be equalized to terms of their peers, in order to create a negative incentive for hiring through employment agencies.

This agreement in principle will not stop tomorrow's general public sector strike, since the Ministry of Finance still opposes a similar deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reportedly intervene tonight to try and reach a compromise.

The Economic Organizations Liaisons Committee still has to approve the deal with the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel); the Association of Cleaning Companies will likely lead the opposition to it. Nonetheless, a top source in the committee said that it would probably approve the deal, and that the cleaning companies would have to adjust, and offer added value services to survive.

Brosh reportedly initially opposed the hiring of the cleaners, but bowed to Eini's insistence on this point.

Over the past three months, the Histadrut, Ministry of Finance and the Economic Organizations Liaisons Committee have held talks on the issue of contract workers, with the goal of reaching a tripartite deal. However, Eini and Brosh concluded that it was better to reach a deal between them, in order to pressure the government to agree to their terms. The deal will likely embarrass the Ministry of Finance, which has insisted that the direct hiring of contract would harm Israeli employers, even as the employers supported the measure.

The employers and the Histadrut struck a deal similar to the one they reached in early 2011 to raise the minimum wage over the Ministry of Finance's objections, and ultimately forced the government to fold and accept the agreement in full or face a Histadrut-led general strike. As in the case over the minimum wage, the Histadrut and the employers will probably make their agreement conditional on either Knesset legislation or a binding directive from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor to regulate the issue.

A Ministry of Finance official admitted to "Globes" that the deal between the Histadrut and the Economic Organizations Liaisons Committee will probably put pressure on the ministry, but added that the interests of the private sector and the public sector as employers were not the same, so there was room for separate agreements. The ministry nonetheless warned against an attempt by the Histadrut and employers to make their agreement subject to Knesset legislation or a ministerial directive.