Restaurateurs and supermarket chain owners are forced to put their hand in their pocket to persuade non-residents to return to work • For some it works, with others - less
Corona unemployment
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For a long time now, many employers have been complaining about the Knesset model, which has made young people who prefer to stay home and receive unemployment benefits instead of returning to work. The issue has been particularly pronounced in restaurants, bars and harder and more abrasive jobs - and now some are trying to lure them back to work. This is how it is in Israel, without incentives no one is willing to do anything - even for themselves.
Some restaurant owners have realized that under existing conditions it will be very difficult for them to recruit employees, and they have decided to give financial incentives, such as direct salary grants.
Others have gone too far and are willing to pay for airline tickets to the Far East or South America, and even grill a car as a gift.
Needless to say, these are employers who are sitting well and have managed to survive the last brutal year.
A story from the Haftarah
Here is an example: The Gan Sipur restaurant group, which includes the Gan Sipur and Silo cafe, is launching a new and unique program to encourage young people to enlist for work: a special preferred work grant for discharged soldiers and national service graduates, in the form of a flight ticket after the army.
The group reports a shortage of kitchen staff, management, waitresses, bar and hospitality.
The goal of the program is to encourage young people to return to work on the day the restaurants open - March 7.
This coming June, the sick pay is expected to end and many young people will flood the market in search of jobs. The group's grant is an incentive and an opportunity for those young people to find work right now.
Bernardo Belchovich, one of the owners of the group: "We turn to the newly released because they do not have an IDF, since they have just been released.
We turn to discharged soldiers because in those years they are still not closed on themselves and have no connection to the workplace.
We offer them a ticket to East or South America at our expense, for those who work eight months a short five-day week, because Generation Y do not like to work all week. "
Well, and there's a demand?
"The response to the move is amazing. We have a lot of inquiries from discharged soldiers. We started the move ten days ago and about 250 discharged soldiers approached us. It surprises us. I read sentences like 'I want to work for you.' They want the grant but also want to return to work. "
Belchovich, who calls unemployment benefits "unemployment benefits" - reveals that even parents approached him, in desperation.
Not for their children, but for themselves.
"The exposure caused a lot of parents in their 40s and 50s to contact us, knowing the grant was not for them, but they realized we needed employees," he says.
"To teach us that if the Israeli government had made a smart plan, it would have saved 50% of the cost of applying."
"We are not philanthropists"
Another restaurant that indicates a similar situation is the "Coals" restaurant in Rehovot.
NIS 500 per quarter for a year - just come and work there.
Eyal Danilov, the owner, is now recruiting 20 employees ahead of the reopening.
Revenue, he reports, has dropped nearly 70 percent since Mrs' start, but he has no choice and has put his hand in his pocket for workers to come.
He has a full stomach, and not because he just ate.
"You can't get employees," Danilov exclaims, his eyes gleaming with anger.
"What do they have to work for, if they get the money from the state? Many would rather sit at sea and drink beer than come to work. There are those who want to work, but they want the money in black and we do not agree."
Danilov and Belchovich's complaints are tired and worn out, but they also spread to the retail industry, and to be more specific - to supermarkets.
Yossi Schwartz, the owner of the "City Market" supermarket chain, is adopting a similar tactic due to the lack of working hands, which he also suffers from.
"The wage we offer to Israeli workers is NIS 40 per hour. It is a fair wage," he believes, "which is 30% higher than the minimum wage of the chains, and yet we tried to find all kinds of incentives. Now we give NIS 500 after a month of work. "750 shekels after two months and 1,000 shekels at the end of a year. In addition, we will grill a car worth about 60,000 shekels among 100 workers."
Unlike Belchovich, Schwartz - look surprised - has no real feedback even after the choppers.
"There's not so much responsiveness," he says and a disappointed look on his face.
“There is a very great difficulty in the central region in finding working hands, which is why we employ foreign workers, Eritreans and Sudanese, who even in the difficult days of the Corona do not get Khalat.
"In addition, the state imposes difficulties and punishes those who employ foreign workers in manual labor with a tax of .20% and there is a tax of 16% for pensions and severance pay. All this so that they leave the country. Therefore we try to do creative things that are not "We thought about them. Who thought of grilling a car? I'm currently happy to recruit 100 workers."
Schwartz also says, like Danilov, that the workers are willing to work - asking for black money in return.
"The employees at the hospital are asking if they can work in black, in exchange for notes to buy in the store and more.
They try all sorts of tricks to get hired because they are tired of being at home.
"We are a legitimate business, so of course we do not hire them. Apart from the shortage of manpower, we also deal with people in isolation or on sick days."
When paid unemployment ends and there is a flood of workers of the type you are looking for, stop distributing incentives?
Schwartz likens it to vegetables: "When there is excess supply - the price goes down. As with tomatoes, so it is in the field of workers. I believe that when there is a flood - most private business owners will not give higher amounts than market. Business people are not philanthropists."
"We recruited those who land"
It turns out that the competition for Israeli workers even reaches as far as Dubai.
Businessman Gil Gurevich from Dubai, owner of a kosher restaurant in Dubai and a tourist and attraction company for Israelis, offers airline tickets, work visas to Dubai and residences, as well as financial bonuses for committing to work for a year or more.
"We will soon establish a center for Israelis and Jews, which will include a happy and kosher restaurant called, TLV that will become a bar in the evening. We are in negotiations with a famous Israeli chef and we recruit Israeli waiters, bartenders and hosts. There will be a synagogue and a kosher supermarket, "A center for Israelis and Jews, and we target Jews from all over the world, especially French who want kosher. For this purpose, we are conducting a massive recruitment of Israelis."
And who will join and repent?
"They have to commit for a year, and we issue them a work visa worth 2,000 euros, a plane ticket and a residence for all the guys together. If they leave before - they will pay the cost of the work permit. The restaurants in Dubai are the Las Vegas of the Middle East. Every dish "We come out with dry ice and smoke. We will also bring in local influencers," Gurevitch promises.
"In the meantime, until the flights return," he says, "I started recruiting Israelis who were stuck here and I started hiring them, and there are also local waiters and piccolo and my partners in the country recruit Israelis."
The claims are embodied in the data
A survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics last January revealed a drastic decline in the volume of employment in the economy, resulting from the prolongation of the corona crisis.
The survey shows that the proportion of employed persons in total employment before the crisis began fell to 74% in early January, compared with 79% in mid-October.
The proportion of workers in the IDF decreased slightly and reached 13% compared to 14% in mid-October, but following the decline in employment, it can be concluded that most of the decline in this estimate is due to the transition from the IDF to layoffs.
The data also show that about 12% of businesses indicated that they do not return workers from the hospital, because the workers do not want to return. About 17% of the businesses with more than 250 employees - reported this reason.
Compared with estimates from last April, it is evident that in all the survey industries there has been a decrease in the proportion of employed persons who work in places that do not allow work from home or remotely at all.
The survey also revealed, in summary, that restaurants and banquet halls were the industry in which the most severe hit on revenue occurred.
About 40% of business owners in this industry reported severe revenue impairment.