This time the laws will pass?
Next Sunday, the Knesset will return from the holiday and the summer session will open with a variety of economic laws that were not approved before the holiday.
Despite the fragility of the coalition, the Treasury hopes that these laws have a high political feasibility, as these are important laws: assistance to the self-employed affected by the Omicron wave, additional credit points for working parents and an increased work grant for low-wage earners.
Lieberman presents the "package deal": "The minimum wage in the economy will be raised to NIS 6,000" // Yoni Rickner
The top priority of the Treasury is the passage of the law to compensate self-employed people who have been harmed by the omicron wave.
According to the outline, businesses that have registered a decrease of more than 35% in turnover compared to January-February 2019 will be granted assistance with a maximum amount of NIS 600 million.
Finance Minister Lieberman tweeted on his Twitter page: "We are opening the summer session in the Knesset for the citizens of the State of Israel. Next week, as soon as the Knesset returns from the winter session, we will return to completing important legislative proceedings for the citizens of Israel."
The summer session of the Knesset is opened for the citizens of the State of Israel.
Next week, immediately after the return of the Knesset from the winter session, we will return to completing important legislative procedures for the citizens of the State of Israel.
- AvigdorLiberman (@AvigdorLiberman) May 1, 2022
The Histadrut is already trying to "prepare the ground" for the passage of the law, and this morning the chairman of the Histadrut's Independent Forum, Rami Beja, addressed the Knesset members with an urgent call: "There are no right and left here. For the omicron grants they have not yet received, "he wrote.
Long legislative procedures
The Self-Employed Compensation Law expects a lengthy legislative procedure - passing it in three readings and discussing it in one of the Knesset committees (Finance, Economy or Labor and Welfare).
In contrast, the laws to increase credit points for working parents of children aged 12-6 and an increased work grant for low-wage earners are awaiting a second and third reading only.
The Finance Committee, headed by MK Alex Kushnir, approved the law to increase credit points for parents and the work grant for reading and second and third during recess in a special discussion held on the subject. The first part of the law concerns credit points for parents. It concerns 610,000 working parents, amounting to NIS 2.1 billion, and the value of each credit point is NIS 2,796 in an annual calculation per parent for one child.
Alex Kushnir // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon,
The second part of the law concerns a work grant that will be increased in 2022 by an additional 20% over the outline initially set for a total addition of 40% to the existing grant - NIS 1,600 on average per beneficiary, instead of NIS 800 in the previous outline, with a total cost of NIS 500 million.
In a situation where both spouses are entitled to the work grant, the amount can reach up to NIS 3,200.
And what about raising the minimum wage that was already supposed to happen as early as April?
It turns out that the Histadrut wants to open the package deal and increase the first beat from NIS 100 to NIS 200, so that the minimum wage will increase to NIS 5,500 from NIS 5,300 today.
This is a legitimate demand since the increase in the minimum wage agreed as part of the package deal back in November was supposed to be approved several months ago, so that the first pulse of NIS 100 will be in April.
However, due to opposition from some government ministers who claimed the raise was too low, the approval of the package deal was postponed.
It will be recalled that in the framework of the package deal signed between the Histadrut, the employers and the Ministry of Finance, it was determined that the minimum wage in the economy will gradually increase over three years to a level of NIS 6,000.
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