Following the exposure of "Israel Today", the struggle is nearing a solution. • The Ministry of Finance proposed an increase of about NIS 30 million.

The threat of laboratory workers protesting and leaving the laboratories after eight hours of work had an effect: At a meeting held yesterday at the Ministry of Finance, laboratory workers received for the first time a proposal to resolve the labor force and standards crisis in laboratories, with a price tag of NIS 30 million. The Ministry of Finance even told the lab workers that an agreement could be reached retroactively from the beginning of July within two weeks.

Corona testing complex in the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood of Tel Aviv // Photo: Shmuel Buharis

However, in terms of the Histadrut Lab Workers' Union, the threat to hold information meetings and work eight hours a day, instead of 16 or 24, remains the same. The last collective agreement with the lab workers was signed 25 years ago and they demand a wage increase, especially for novice workers who earn NIS 31 per hour and for senior lab workers, who have a doctorate, in order to keep them in the job.

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The meeting was attended by the Commissioner for Wages at the Ministry of Finance, Efi Malkin, the chairman of the Histadrut, Arnon Bar-David, and the chairman of the Laboratory Workers' Union, Esther Admon. Admon said that "the protest measures have remained in place and the area is boiling and turbulent."

"I asked to have daily meetings and for me I will not return home until white smoke comes out. We expect an agreement that will significantly improve public health and our health. Otherwise we will not continue in the current situation. We will not be able to get through the winter in the current situation and labs will fail."