Senior professionals in the public service, inside and outside the Ministry of Labor, are providing a series of testimonies and harsh allegations about the conduct of Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur of Shas and its director-general, Yisrael Uzan, who is known to be close to Aryeh Deri and who was appointed in place of Tair Ifergan – the only woman who served as director general in the government at the time.
The sources, with whom Israel Hayom spoke, raised allegations of alleged deficiencies and delays regarding the appointment and publication of tenders for senior deputy directors general in the ministry's professional avenue – positions with great influence in all matters related to employment of special populations, strategy and policy, vocational training for adults and weaker populations, as well as technological colleges for training practical engineers and technicians.
Celebrations at the election headquarters of the Shas party (Archive) // Yuri Yalon
Among other things, it was argued that the director general and the minister allegedly preferred to appoint people with less experience over those with more suitable professional experience, and that the minister appoints only men to senior positions since the beginning of his term.
Favorite: Outsider
From a factual perspective, Dudu Dahan was recently elected the Ministry's internal auditor, who unexpectedly beat another candidate who had a higher ranking than him in the civil service, who has extensive experience as an internal auditor of the Ministry of Labor and Economy for about a decade.
In addition, three senior vice president positions are not adequately filled, and the veteran chief strategy officer who announced her departure has not yet been named a replacement, although her departure has been known for some time.
In addition, the position of deputy director general of the technological colleges has been filled by a substitute for a year and a half, and according to the sources, the search committee for the position has already been postponed several times.
According to the claim, there is concern that the tender was rejected because the substitute, who is professional in her field, will soon be on maternity leave, and whoever is appointed in her place will gain experience and thus be able to compete against her for the position on the search committee.
The hot name candidate for the position is Amir Medina, who was the director of the daycare division at the Ministry of Labor, but had no experience in technological colleges.
"He has low employee evaluations, he is considered a comfortable figure vis-à-vis the political echelon," senior professionals in the ministry said. "The argument is that Ben-Tzur wants a convenient candidate there when it comes to ultra-Orthodox seminars." And so again, coincidentally, a man would be preferred over a woman.
The position of Chief Population Officer is also filled by a substitute, after Yulia Eitan left the position a few months ago. Her replacement is the VP of Strategy, who announced her retirement, and serves in both positions simultaneously. Unusually, although there were 12 candidates in the inter-ministerial tender for the position, all of them were disqualified and therefore a public tender was published.
According to the claims raised, behind the sweeping disqualification is the minister's desire to appoint an outsider to the position. According to government sources, Ben-Tzur is considering appointing a Shas man to the position, and the assessments speak of his chief of staff or that of Director General Uzan.
The committee is repeatedly rejected
Another position Ben Tzur recently filled is VP of Service – also by a man. By an astonishing coincidence, two men's appointments by Ben-Tzur and his CEO can already be counted, in addition to the candidate to replace one of the women in the ministry, while three women are already leaving the position – two who have retired and one who is on maternity leave, while the search committee is repeatedly postponed, as stated.
Even in the director-general's office, with the exception of secretaries and bureau directors, all advisers and the chief of staff are men – unlike the appointments during the previous director-general's term. In Minister Ben-Tsur's office, the positions are also filled by men. The women who hold senior positions in the ministry were appointed before his tenure.
The non-staffing of these appointments means delays in the work of the Ministry of Labor, and as a result of the ministry's refusal to transfer to the Ministry of Economy the authority of training for adults and employers as determined by the government, the training has been paralyzed for eight months.
According to sources in the Economy Ministry, "We burned eight months on egos and childish politics of the Ministry of Labor, and those who are hurt are the adults who do not integrate into employment."
"Distinctly female majority"
Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur's spokesman said in response: "Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur is proud to be a signatory to the reestablishment of the Ministry of Labor after four decades of wandering between government ministries without a stable roof over his head, as befits a strong and powerful ministry that represents workers in Israel.
"Naturally, the ministry, as a new ministry, is in an orderly organizational process, including staffing positions. We emphasize that in a short period of time, the Ministry has reaped many achievements, among other things – signing convalescence allowances for all workers in the economy, shortening the number of interns on duty, signing an expansion order in convalescence allowance in the private sector, increasing the number of women studying high-tech technological studies, increasing supervision of working conditions for diverse populations earning minimum wage, raising the minimum wage and increasing budgets for safety and technological training.
"The policy of the Director General of the Ministry of Labor is to select professionals based on their experience and suitability for the position according to the threshold conditions set by the Civil Service Commission in a legal selection process, regardless of religion, race or gender. Minister of Labor Yoav Ben-Tzur is proud of the Ministry of Labor's management team, which is diverse and has a clear female majority: more than 60% of senior positions in the ministry are held by women, while in the public service in general only 45% are women in senior positions.
"As befits a ministry responsible for diversity in the employment market, we will continue to work to diversify populations in the public service, including Arabs, ultra-Orthodox, Ethiopian immigrants and more, among the ministry's senior officials and employees. Therefore, the firm stands behind the professional choices that were made.
"In all the processes mentioned, screening processes were carried out as determined by the Civil Service Commission, first in tests and then in a committee of examiners, which is the final stage, composed of 4 different representatives; A ministry representative, a Histadrut representative, a representative of the Civil Service Commission and a representative of another government ministry.
On the merits of claims:
1. In the tender for the position of Internal Comptroller, Mr. Dudu Dahan was chosen, whose issue of faith was not a criterion in the committee and was not put to the test, but the only thing was the distinguished professional resume he brought with him from the Ministry of Public Security and the army.
Mr. Dahan's experience impressed all the members of the examining committee who unanimously elected him because of his professional abilities.
2. The Deputy Director General of Service who was elected served as Deputy Director General of Service at Mapi in the Ministry of Housing and was also elected unanimously in light of his professional experience and the abilities he presented to the Committee.
3. Regarding the examining committee for the position of Director of the Ministry of Defense, since the reestablishment of the Ministry, it was postponed only once due to medical constraints on the part of the Director General of the Ministry.
4. In the inter-ministerial tender for the position of head of the Population Administration, no suitable candidates were found, and therefore we embarked on a public selection process. We emphasize that this is a completely natural and proper procedure as defined by the Civil Service Commission.
5. Regarding the Chief Strategy Officer, she asked to leave her position after more than 16 years in public service due to a sense of exhaustion.
6. As for the VP of vocational training, there never was and never was.
7. In the Office of the Director General, women have held key positions for many years who have remained in their positions due to their ability and professional experience."
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