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The state has forced hundreds of interns to take time off - and is now demanding that they return money

Public service interns were required to go on forced leave due to the Corona crisis even beyond the permitted vacation days.

Now, at the end of the internship, the state is forcing them to return the salary for those days - which can reach thousands of shekels.

The Histadrut and the Ministry of Finance understand that the situation is problematic and exchange accusations

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Daniel Dolev

Monday, 08 February 2021, 19:51

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The burden was not shared equally among all workers.

Ministry of Justice (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Last March, with the outbreak of the corona virus, the government imposed strict restrictions on the employment of non-essential workers.

In the same month, a collective agreement was signed between the Histadrut, the Ministry of Finance and the Civil Service Commission, which approved spending on forced leave of non-essential civil servants.

The agreement stipulates that those employees will be forced to take 16 days off in March-April, at their own expense.

Employees who have not accumulated enough vacation days, it was determined, will be able to enter the "minus" at the expense of future vacation days.

But the burden was not shared equally among all workers.

The interns, whose salaries are relatively low, come for a period of only one year, so they could not take a down payment at the expense of next year’s vacation days.

The interns were entitled to 16 days of annual leave, so the forced leave in March ended the quota for them.

But in April, another agreement was signed that required non-essential workers, including interns, to take six more days off at their own expense, and another six at the state's expense.

Also, as happens every year, even during the Tishrei holidays the interns were required to take a few extra vacation days.

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Exchange of accusations.

Ministry of Finance (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Wikipedia)

The result was that interns who began their internship in September and March 2020 found themselves in a deficit of vacation days, even if they did not take a single vacation day on their own initiative.

When they finished their internship, the state asked them to settle the vacation days deficit, and they were required to return hundreds of shekels for each vacation day beyond the quota.

Now even the interns of the March cycle are required to do so.

These are hundreds of people, and today there are about 900 interns in the civil service, most of them in the Ministry of Justice.

In a conversation with an intern at one of the government ministries, which began his internship in March 2020, he confirmed that he will currently be required to return about 2,000 shekels to the state.

Another point that worries the interns is that at the end of their internship they are forced not to work for a few more months to study for the certification exams - a period in which only part of them are entitled to unemployment benefits.

"The problem is growing."

Adv. Gordon (Photo: Official Website, Meir Alipur)

The chairman of the Histadrut's Union of Lawyers, Adv. Yitzhak (Yitzi) Gordon, addressed the Civil Service Commissioner, Prof. Daniel Hershkovitz, to the Commissioner of Wages at the Ministry of Finance, Kobi Bar-Natan, and to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

He sought to find a solution to the interns' distress.

"The longer the situation lasts and the longer the vacation, the greater the problem," Gordon wrote.

"As for the interns' salaries, they fall between the cracks, in the absence of accumulated vacation days that can be deducted from them. As long as no proper overall arrangement is found for them, at the end of the internship year or during they will have to offset the many days of absence from their salary.

Gordon's letter states that the problem was known months ago, but nothing was done.

The collective agreement signed in March was supposed to provide at least a partial solution, by establishing a vacation days fund that would help workers run into a deficit.

But to this day this fund has not yet been established, and in any case it will provide only a partial solution, as it concerns only the period of the first forced leave.

The state and the Histadrut blame each other for the situation that has arisen.

"The Histadrut has approached the Ministry of Finance on this issue and made a number of proposals to address the plight of temporary workers, including students and interns who are due to finish their jobs during the crisis," the Histadrut said.

"Unfortunately, the Treasury has refused to accept these proposals. We believe that the appropriate solution on the part of the state is to reach a special arrangement for these populations on the days of deprivation imposed on them."

On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance says that "the state has approached the Civil Servants' Union several times regarding the establishment of a vacation days fund and even made concrete proposals in favor of arranging vacation days for civil service employees who have entered the vacation days deficit, including law and student interns. Our proposals were rejected or not answered at all. "

State Commission: "Principles of the Holiday Fund have been agreed, but the agreement has not yet been signed"

The Civil Service Commission stated that "the issue of a vacation fund for all civil servants, including the intern population, is part of the kibbutz arrangement with the Histadrut in relation to the entire public sector, and is handled by the Division in charge of salaries in the Ministry of Finance. "For us, but the agreement has not yet been signed. Once it is signed, orderly instructions will be passed and it will be applied to the employees."

The Commission also stated that "as long as there is no agreement regarding the vacation days fund, no other arrangements can be made and therefore employees with a negative balance of vacation days who terminate their employment are required at the end of their employment to pay the debt incurred." Such an agreement, but from what we have been told many times by the Wages Division of the Ministry of Finance, they have not yet reached an agreement with the Histadrut. To the extent that it is decided to apply the agreement to be signed retroactively, it will also apply to employees who terminated their employment before signing the agreement. To be determined on the subject. "

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