The Histadrut General Federation of Labor and the Ministry of Finance have reached a new public sector pay agreement. Later today Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David will hold a press conference to announce the details of the agreement including the public sector pay hike and tax rights on pensions.
The salary agreement includes a deal with the kindergarten assistants. Bar-David had been demanding that starting salaries rise 20% from NIS 5,900 a month to NIS 7,000-7,500, with further rises to NIS 10,000 depending on professional progress.
Another issue that had been in dispute was the expected cut of tax benefits in pensions, which now appears to be canceled as part of the agreements between the Treasury and the Histadrut. This week, Bar-David announced that he would oppose the Treasury's plan to harm the public's pension benefits, which was approved by the government, as part of the state budget.
As reported by "Globes," the country's historic promise to raise the tax exemption ceiling for pension benefit recipients in 2025 was canceled by the government. This would have meant a loss of hundreds of shekels every month for pensioners. On behalf of Bar-David it was announced last Tuesday that "this would not happen."
Wages in the public sector have been creeping upwards in recent years, despite the freeze on wage agreements imposed at the start of the Covid crisis in 2020, which is still in effect today. For example, in 2021, the average salary for all employees in government offices was NIS 17,368 per month for a full-time position - an increase of about 1.3% compared to the salary in 2020 and an increase of 1.6% compared with 2019.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 2, 2023.
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