The number of passengers at Ben Gurion Airport has begun to rise in recent days, but it is still far from the days we knew before the war period. The Airports Authority held a conversation with the employees this morning in which they were informed of the decision to put about 600 of them on unpaid leave, about 1,000 more will have to be reduced to about 75% of their positions, and about 1,000 more are currently in the reserves, not manning their jobs, but they will not be harmed in terms of their employment conditions.
The employees who will be placed on unpaid leave or whose jobs will be cut are from various departments in the Airports Authority, including handling, sorting, security and other departments responsible for operating Israel's main airport. In normal times, there are about 4,600 employees at Ben Gurion Airport, but now, after the decision was made, only about 3,000 will remain, and as stated, about 1,000 of them will be reduced to part-time jobs only.
Passenger numbers have been rising lately, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
In a conversation with Pinchas Idan, chairman of the Airports Authority workers' committee, he says: "We had to take this step because there is not enough work for everyone, and we hope that we will be able to bring everyone back as soon as possible. We are talking about employees who were recruited in 2022-2023 and at the moment it is not known when, it can take a month and it can take six months, let's hope it will be as quickly as possible. We made sure that those on unpaid leave would receive payment from the National Insurance Institute, and hopefully we would know better days."
In a conversation with airport workers who received the message, they tell Israel Hayom: "I have a family, it's hard and stressful, we don't know when they'll put us back to work. We will get something from the National Insurance Institute, but it's not like working and earning a decent living, a very difficult decision."
In a conversation with employees who stayed to work, they say: "This decision hurts beyond the fact that our friends are on unpaid leave, it will greatly affect us, all the work will fall on those who remain, and I hope we will meet it, because soon foreign companies are expected to return and it may not be simple."
Ben Gurion Airport did not respond to a request for comment
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