Israeli teachers do not earn enough, but they have a bank that lends them money

The Teachers 'Union, which is fighting a justified struggle to improve teachers' salaries in Israel, has enormous assets.

You are welcome to get to know one of them: Masad Bank, which, absurdly, was chosen to provide special loans to the teaching staff who actually own it.

Part two of the research

Walla!

Of money

04/07/2022

Monday, 04 July 2022, 12:58 Updated: 13:15

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Teachers are protesting to raise their salaries.

The struggle is justified, but the masks are more suitable for those who claim to represent them (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Israeli teachers have been struggling for years, and rightly so, for their wages and working conditions.

The beginning teachers, who have become the "poster boys" of the teachers' union's struggle, earn about NIS 6,000 a month and are struggling to finish it.

After yesterday we revealed details about the salary of the organization's secretary general, Yaffa Ben David, the organization's budget - almost half a billion shekels a year and a series of financial and other assets worth billions of shekels, this time we will focus on one of them: Bank Masad

. The owner of a number of financial entities that roll in a lot of money, among them: the "Ashmoret" credit club, the "Teachers' and Kindergarteners' Association", the "Retired Teachers' Association", the "Vocational Promotion Fund", the "Teacher Training School", the "Gal" and "Provident Funds" Kalanit, and Masad Holdings, which owns Masad Bank.

Yes, it's a little hard to believe, but the teachers, who are struggling for their salaries,

Masad Bank understands an account - from a past campaign for the teaching public, to which part of the bank belongs (Photo: not to be used)

The millions that go to teachers

Masad Bank, today part of the International Bank Group, was founded as a cooperative bank by the Teachers' Union and its members in 1929.

The association was established as a mutual society for teachers, so that its members could receive loans on favorable terms.

Following suspicion of irregularities and fear for its stability, Bank Hapoalim agreed to guarantee Masad's liabilities and later entered as a partner.

In 2008, the International Bank bought the share of Bank Hapoalim and today the ownership of the bank is divided between the international, which holds 51% of its shares, and 49% which are held by Masad Holdings, which is controlled by Ashmoret of the Teachers' Union (50.07%). , And association members (0.46%).

This chain of membership is a recurring theme in almost all the assets owned by the Teachers' Union, to remind you, of an Ottoman association, which has historically not been required to audit and report transparently on its activities, which should end at the end of the current fiscal year. And current.

This thread, even if innocent and legal, faithfully serves those who wish to maintain ambiguity around the huge sums of money held by the mechanism that represents most Israeli teachers.

In the reports of the International Bank as of March 2022, the financial data of Masad Bank appear, of which the members of the Teachers' Union (who own a significant part of the bank) are not at all aware, unless they bother to search the reports themselves.

According to the reports, Masad's equity amounted to NIS 455 million (NIS 218 million of which belongs to the teachers 'union!) And its net profit amounted to NIS 24.9 million, ie NIS 12.2 million of which belongs to the teachers' union members.

In 2021, the bank distributed dividends, money distributed among the owners, in the amount of NIS 20 million and was supposed to reach the teachers.

From conversations we had with representatives of the Teachers 'Union Council who are supposed to receive a report on what is happening in the organization, none of them knows how much the Teachers' Union received from the dividend and where the money went.

What is clear - the teachers themselves, as individuals, did not see a shekel in the pay slip.

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The secretary general of the Teachers 'Union, Yaffa Ben-David, is waging a justified but not transparent enough professional struggle regarding the gap between the teachers' union's assets and the wages it represents (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The teachers' bank lends them money

For the past five years, three Histadrut retirees, through attorneys Yitzhak Aviram and Shachar Ben Meir, have been conducting a class action lawsuit against Masad Holdings, claiming that the Histadrut deprived them when they bought the bank's shares for small sums, without informing them of their true value and thus increased its holdings. During

the

trial, an expert opinion was given by CPA Dr. Tzur Fenigstein, a partner in the accounting firm "Kesselman and Kesselman PWC", who assessed the value of the bank's assets.

Among the other assets, Dr. Fenigstein found land in Hod Hasharon, which The teachers 'union is worth NIS 90,000. It turns out that the value of the land is currently estimated at NIS 34 million, with a share of the teachers' union being NIS 17 million, which is not included in the bank's equity.

Recently, Masad won, for the second time, the Accountant General's tender for the provision of loans to teaching staff, and conditional grants to students in institutions for the training of teaching staff.

For the benefit of the tender, the bank deposited a deposit of NIS 826 million in a special fund through which loans will be provided to teaching staff.

In their current financial situation, many teachers will be forced to apply for a loan to the bank they own.

It is important to emphasize: in publishing this data, there is no desire to undermine the justified struggle for teachers' salaries, who do hard work and are rewarded with stinginess.

It is only strange to find that the workers' organization that represents those who are deprived of their wages is in fact a powerful economic body whose seniors earn a wage that teachers - even their seniors - can only dream of.

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