Likud
(Site in Hebrew only. Go to American Friends of the Likud for English site) The ruling party is directing the public to its platform for the 1999 elections for the 15th Knesset. “We might carry out some minor changes later, but in the meantime, our position hasn’t changed since then,” said Likud Knesset faction spokesman Shmulik Dahan.
Article 14 of the Likud’s platform, written when Benjamin Netanyahu was still prime minister, gives the impression that the main problem burdening Israel’s labor market is the lack of investment in professional training and retraining.
Entitled “Promoting employment”, the article states, “The government will continue to increase employment opportunities by expanding the network for professional training that will provide suitable training for the unemployed and subsidize in-house training. The government will continue to act in this matter, in collaboration with the private sector, workers organizations, local authorities and associations, in order to create more jobs for the unemployed. The government will expand incentives to employers who provide jobs to members of groups that constitute unemployment hubs, and will grant full income tax and National Insurance Institute payments exemptions to workers earning the minimum wage.”
Labor Party
(Site in Hebrew only) The Labor Party has revised its platform to make it more relevant to the present time. The platform promises “The creation of 100,000 new jobs every year for five years,” while increasing the participation in the labor force from 54% to 60% and adopting the principles of the Wisconsin program - i.e. “reducing payments that discourage working.”
How will a Labor government create 100,000 new jobs a year? The party platform states the following measures: “Increasing investment in infrastructures and the business sector to leverage higher growth and reduce unemployment, by diverting budgets from the settlements (including the immediate evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements), which will amount to billions of shekels over five years, to growth-contributing targets, with an emphasis on communities along the confrontation line, Negev and Galilee, development towns and distressed neighborhoods.
“A gradual reduction of government support, up to the complete elimination within five years, to those who do not work, expect for those with a proven incapacity to work, while giving preference to training programs and programs to bring the unemployed back into the labor pool.
“Maximizing environmental conditions for growth (in the areas of lower taxes and labor costs, exchange rates, simplifying procedures, etc.), as is being done in competing countries (especially in Europe) for industry and export-oriented enterprises, in order to cope with international competition.” Shas What does Shas, which for years has controlled the Ministry of Labor and Social Services, the ministry responsible for professional training and the Israel National Employment Service, offer? “Globes” contacted Deputy Minister of Finance Yitzhak Cohen for details about Shas’s plans for the war on unemployment. He summarized the party’s position as follows: “We have 300,000 foreign workers who equal the number of our unemployed. Send them home.”
Cohen wished to make it clear that he does not mean “deporting them”, but “sending them home - even giving them farewell gifts.” Cohen promises that without the foreign workers, unemployment in Israel “would barely amount to 0.5%.”
Meretz
Former, and probably future, MK Haim Oron provided “Globes” with details of Meretz’s plan for the war on unemployment. Oron is responsible for formulating the party’s economic platform. First of all, he says, “We believe that we must view unemployment, not the unemployed, as the problem. In other words, we reject the Minister of Finance’s theory that 900 Bank Hapoalim workers don’t want to work.”
Like Shas, Meretz also believes that reducing the number of foreign workers is the key to the problem of unemployment. “So long as it is economically worthwhile to employ foreign workers, they will take the jobs of Israelis and lower the level of wages in the economy. The real cost of employing foreign workers must be raised.” Oron wishes to make it clear that Meretz does not recommend burdening the foreign workers, but their employers. “Foreign workers must be allowed to work if their employers want them, while halting the link to a specific employer. The entire mafia-like nature of this foreign worker employment industry must be changed.”
Meretz supports the Wisconsin program, with reservations. “So long as it is an attempt to deal with specific programs for specific unemployment hubs, where there is a culture of unemployment, the program is all right. However, it must be understood that this is not the main or central method, but only of a basket of solutions.”
Shinui
Shinui considers itself as the representative of the middle classes. The party has its own reasons to question the Wisconsin program. “We believe a much more dramatic program than the Wisconsin program is needed,” says MK Avraham Poraz, who is responsible for the party’s economic platform. “We think it is necessary to reduce income support payments, expect to the sick, elderly and people unable to work, in order to force people to seek work.” In response to a question how that would help when the economy is in recession and there is no new job creation, Poraz says, “That is not correct. There are plenty of jobs. It is a fact that are so many foreign workers.”
As for the foreign workers, Shinui recommends “Banning the employment of new foreign workers, encouraging those here to leave, and levying a tax on their employment,” as Poraz put it.
One Nation
The way to fight unemployment, the party of Histadrut chairman MK Amir Perez believes, is to oppose “the conservative economic and monetary policies that hurt workers, their standard of living and ability to support their families with security and dignity,” in the words of the party platform.
One Nation also promises “To promote legislation to establish a special institution to coordinate between workers, the government and employers. It will demand that every government a moral and fair economic policy to encourage the creation of new jobs. The party will contribute initiatives in this area, including focused initiatives to increase the supply of jobs and reintegrate the unemployed in productive society.”
Yisrael B’Aliya
The immigrants’ party believes subsidizing jobs is the best way to encourage employment. The party’s program calls for the government to offer incentives to employers who are prepared to hire new workers who hitherto received allocations from the state. “The state will indirectly transfer money to the unemployed through employers, rather than directly through transfer payments,” explains MK Gennady Riger, responsible for the party’s economic platform. “The amount the state transfers to that unemployed person so he will be unproductive will be given to the employer, who will give it to the worker as part of the salary he earns for his work.”
The party’s platform proposes differential subsidies, giving preference to the hiring of the weakest segments of the unemployed: 20% of salaries to discharged soldiers; 40% of the minimum wage to workers over the age of 45; and 35% of the minimum wage to new immigrants. Under the proposal, the subsidy will be conditioned on the employer’s agreement to employ the worker for a minimum period of two years, and the employee’s agreement to work for a minimum of three months. To prevent a “subsidy turnover” - known from previous government attempts to subsidize wages - an employer may receive support only once for each job created.
National Union (Ihud Leumi)
National Union’s economic platform as formulated by MK Yuri Shtern includes the following proposals to encourage employment: initiating five large-scale national projects; subsidizing employee transportation from outlying regions; privatizing part of the Israel National Employment Service; cutting bureaucracy; and lowering municipal taxes.
On the subject of foreign workers, Shtern says, “We must focus on the illegal foreign workers, legalize them, while simultaneously creating incentives to reintegrate Israelis in the construction and agricultural sectors. These professions should be declared preferential professions, among other things.”
The National Union “does not reject work projects,” says Shtern, and agrees in principle with the Wisconsin program. “However, our position is that it is necessary to more positively encourage people to look for work, nit just by cutting their allotments. For example, we propose allowing recipients of income support payments to own cars, on the condition they have additional income of up to 20% of the minimum wage.”
National Religious Party
Like the Likud, the National Religious Party (NRP) has not revised its economic platform since the last elections. On the matter of encouraging employment, that platform stated, “The NRP will encourage and initiate job creation and economic stability in order to reduce unemployment levels among long-time Israeli citizens and new immigrants, with an emphasis on unemployment hubs. The party will call for the establishment of regional industrial parks, including infrastructures and the development of free-trade zones, while preserving the environment.”
Hadash
(Site in Hebrew only) The Israel Communist Party supports “a guaranteed jobs for anyone who wants one,” as outgoing MK Tamar Gozansky, responsible for the party’s economic platform, puts it. Hadash also proposes paying unemployment benefits for up to 12 months from the first day of unemployment (instead of the current six months), equalizing the rights of foreign workers with Israelis, the inclusion of foreign workers in unions, and restoring local industry protections from imports in order to preserve jobs.