Shlomo Eliahu, chairman and controlling shareholder of insurance company Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL),agreed today to recognize the unionization of Migdal's employees for the first time under the wing of the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel), "Globes" has learned.
This means that, under the law, Migdal and Eliahu are now obliged to conduct negotiations over a collective labor agreement at the company, a process recently completed at Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLIS). Israel's two largest insurance companies have thus become unionized.
It is believed that Eliahu made the decision with a heavy heart, three months after the Histadrut declared that it was the representative organization of Migdal's workers, and after he realized, among other things because of legal advice he received, that recognition of unionization was unavoidable in the circumstances.
Migdal's management will now try to replicate, more or less, the terms of the collective agreement signed at Clal Insurance, which even by Histadrut sources is considered an agreement that goes a long way towards taking into account the needs of the company for management flexibility.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 30, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013