The Beersheva Labor Court has ordered Ashdod Port workers to cease the sanctions they have applied since Sunday, and has told the workers and the port's management to conduct negotiations for two weeks on the matters in dispute between them.
Since Sunday, the port's workers have shut down the computer system for the container machinery, causing a severe slowdown in work and long queues of trucks at the port entrance. As a result, the port's output has been cut to 20% or normal.
The reason for the disruption is the intention of the port's management to replace the secretary of the workers committee, Michal Lugassi, who, according to a State Comptroller's report, in her role as a member of the port's recruitment committees, ranked 78 job candidates who had no family connection with existing port workers at the bottom of her rankings of their qualifications by giving them the minimum possible score of 1, while raising the chances of those who did have family connections by giving their qualifications a score of 10.
On Monday, Ashdod Port acting CEO Isaac Blumenthal notified the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) that he was demanding Logassi's replacement on the tenders committee by another employee, in order to maintain proper corporate governance at the port and to avoid the recruitment of employees who had family members already employed there, which is forbidden by the regulations of the Government Companies Authority.
Ashdod Port management said in a statement, "We welcome the court's decision. The management of Ashdod Port will continue to do everything in its power to keep to the rules of corporate governance and to recruit for work at the port only the most professional workers, and only on the basis of their qualifications, in order to provide our customers with the most professional, most efficient, and best service possible."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 4, 2014
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