Four months after dozens of employees were laid off, the mood among SAP Israel employees is favorable to a union. Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) leaders, together with SAP Israel employees, are negotiating for the founding of a workers committee to represent the employees, and hope to obtain the signatures of a third of the company's 700 employees. If they are successful, the Ra'anana-based software company will have a representative workers committee for the first time.
Histadrut spokesman Yaniv Levy told "Globes," "Today, we began the task of getting signatures, after a group of SAP employees contacted us recently. This brave group of employees is trying to ensure its job security." Levy added, "Getting signatures is going at a good pace, and I predict we will obtain the necessary one third in a matter of days."
Employee unionization is fairly rare in Israel in the high tech sector. If and when the committee is recognized, it will be only the second time a workers committee has been established in an Israeli high-tech company. Six months ago, a workers committee was established in Ness Technologies, after 1,000 of the company's 2,700 employees signed up for the committee through the Histadrut.
SAP Israel's employees are following in the footsteps of their counterparts in Germany, where SAP has its headquarters. The workers committee there is especially strong.
The recruitment form distributed by the SAP employees action committee states, "For a long time, we have seen changes and erosion in our working conditions that are detracting from our status as employees. We recently again experienced dramatic cutbacks and changes in the company, and we, the employees, the core of the company, had no way of exerting influence. There are SAP employees overseas organized into a workers committee who have the ability to affect changes and restrict the negative impact on them as workers. We are just as deserving as they are. This is the right way of representing our interest."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 3, 2014
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