"There will be no reform at Israel Electric Corporation. The harm to the money in the pension funds is the crossing of a point of no return," said Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) workers committee chairman Miko Tzarfati in response to a decision by the IEC board to instruct the management to wind up the special trust fund for ensuring benefits payable to the corporation's pensioners.
Tzarfati called on the directors to resign in the wake of the decision because, he claimed, they acted against their consciences following a campaign of fear by the government. "If IEC states in its financial report that it releases at the end of the week that it is close to reform, that will be a lie," he said.
The workers committee has already declared a labor dispute following action taken by the company, and this morning dozens of workers led by Tzarfati broke into the board of directors meeting to present their case.
The IEC board decided today to instruct the corporation's management to start the process of withdrawing the balance of money deposited in a trust account held jointly by the corporation and the workers committee. The amount is question is NIS 1.3 billion that the corporation deposited in the account to secure compensation benefits that the workers are supposed to receive after retirement, among them free electricity and bonuses for festivals, in the event that the corporation goes bankrupt.
Sources at the Ministry of Finance expressed satisfaction at the decision today, saying that they expected IEC management to act determinedly to carry it out. The decision was made following a decision by the regulatory team that supervises IEC, coordinated by the Government Companies Authority.
Tzarfati told "Globes" after the decision: "The picture is clear. The state does not want any settlement. It prefers to inflame the public, and that's very easy because the public undergoes constant brainwashing against IEC. Take the new minister of finance even before he understands who's against whom he comes out with statements against the corporation's workers and the free electricity. To link the pension fund and the rise in electricity rates is a gimmick. If you want to bring about the collapse of the corporation, go ahead. Just don't say that rates are being raised because of us. There is no connection between the two things."
Tzarfat added that in his view the company was headed for financial collapse, and that the process would be accelerated by the entry of the private power producers, that had already taken the corporation's largest customers. "I'm not prepared for them to take away the pension money, because if IEC collapses tomorrow, the IEC workers will suffer the same fate as the workers at Ma'ariv, and I'm not prepared to take responsibility for that."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 21, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013