In the video: Dodi Amsalam in a sharp attack in the Knesset Plenum/Knesset Channel
A well-publicized conflict that ended in the resignation of Michal Rosenbaum/image processing, Union of Municipal Corporations, Yonatan Zindel/Flash 90
The Government Companies Authority affair occupied the media quite a bit, when at the center of things was the well-publicized conflict between Minister Dodi Amsalem and the authority's director, Michal Rosenbaum, which ended in the resignation of the latter, who opposed the minister's intention to transfer the authority and its employees from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Regional Development under his responsibility.
The Government Companies Authority is a body that oversees more than 100 companies and associations, whose assets are worth approximately NIS 235 billion, and which engage in public activity in the fields of society, the economy, education, community services and welfare.
Those who still opposed the transition are the employees themselves, through the Histadrut, which is the representative organization of the state employees (which also includes employees of the Government Companies Authority).
In this context, the Histadrut appealed to the Regional Labor Court in Jerusalem and asked to suspend the transition until the completion of the negotiations between the state (as an employer) and the Histadrut regarding the consequences of the transition on their working conditions
. The Authority's employees (most of whom perform financial roles), and it stands in contrast to their expectations at the time of their employment when the Authority was an integral part of the Ministry of Finance. The
court accepted the Histadrut's position and in a recent ruling suspended the transition until the negotiations between the Histadrut and the state regarding the consequences are completed. The transition, the working conditions of the Authority's employees and more.
This is a ruling that does not deviate from what is accepted in similar cases - maintaining the status quo until the negotiations between the parties are completed. At the same time, the context in which the ruling was given is a representative example of the crisis that the State of Israel has been dealing with over the past year.
Rosenbaum.
A database of jobs for the promotion of acquaintances and political interests/official website, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance
On the one hand, a decision was made to transfer a public body, which is economic in nature and therefore its natural place is in the Ministry of Finance, to another ministry that apparently has no connection to the Companies Authority.
After all, it is clear that the desire to transfer the employees from the economic government office, which is the natural home of the Companies Authority, to the office for regional cooperation, is completely political and does not arise from professional reasons.
The director of the authority who resigned stated in this context that Minister Amsalem sees the Companies Authority as a reservoir of jobs for the promotion of acquaintances and political interests.
Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance also opposed the move, and pointed to the lack of relevance of the Ministry of Regional Cooperation to the activities managed by the Government Companies Authority, and to the lack of the professional envelope it had in the Ministry of Finance, which is required in order to perform its duties optimally.
This is another step that harms the public's trust in the government and creates fear among the civil servants and among the professional bodies, because it seems tainted by foreign and irrelevant interests.
This situation creates a public atmosphere, which allows the move itself to be torpedoed.
On the other hand, this public atmosphere, which the government is not educated to calm, leads to damage to the interests of the government itself and the quality of the services it provides to the public, unnecessarily.
The government manages the public systems in the country, including the Companies Authority.
As such (similar to private entities), it is authorized to manage them according to its discretion and interests.
The chairman of the Histadrut. The court accepted the position of the organization/spokespersons of the Histadrut
In this framework, the state decided to move the employees of the Companies Authority from office to office (as has already happened in the past when the employees of the Authority were part of the Prime Minister's Office and moved to the Ministry of Finance).
As part of this transition, its employees will remain civil servants, their wages and working conditions will not be affected, and the harm that the Histadrut is complaining about is in a very specific and relatively narrow interest - moving to a smaller and more marginal office than the Ministry of Finance.
This change is currently being negotiated between the workers and the state and in the end, the negotiation will end - most likely by agreement, but even if not, the employer has the right to manage his business as he wishes.
Against this background, the court's decision to delay the transition is unnecessary, as the delay in completing the move harms the employees' functioning and creates a feeling of uncertainty.
In doing so, the court violated the employer's freedom to manage his business, beyond what was required.
Why not allow the continuation of the negotiations on this narrow and marginal issue, while carrying out the transition to the new office? How will the rights of the employees be harmed by the very act of carrying out the transition and continuing the negotiations when they are under the umbrella of the new office?
It seems that when you separate this decision from its broader context (the conduct of the government), and focus on the substance of the matter, the court could have made a different decision - a decision that would have allowed the Authority to continue to function as required.
The writer is a partner in the firm Dafna Shmoelwitz & Co. which specializes in labor law and represents employers in the economy
More on the same topic:
David Amsalam
The Government Companies Authority
the Histadrut
workers' Union