Last update - 00:00 20/11/2007
BGU students denied permit for pro-worker demonstration sue school
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Students at Ben-Gurion University denied a permit to demonstrate on behalf of cleaning workers there have decided to sued the school for denying them freedom of speech. Their case will be heard by the Be'er Sheva District Court next week.
Students have been involved for nearly two years in an effort by university cleaning workers to have their work conditions improved. This includes assisting them in trying to organize into a union.
After the university administration denied a request to hold an outdoor demonstration in support of the workers, students went ahead Monday and held a rally without permission. There, attorney Rahel Idelvitz, from the Kav LaOved Worker's Hotline, told some 40 workers about the rights guaranteed them by law. "According to the law, physical laborers are entitled to a 45-minute break during a six-hour workday," said Rahel Idelvitz, addressing workers in both Hebrew and Russian. (Other languages spoken by the all-female cleaning staff are Spanish and Amharic). The workers are employed by two temporary-labor companies, which means they do not receive such benefits as pension payments. Also, they are frequently fired every nine months, a method for avoiding paying certain benefits.
In August the university increased its rates, and even took upon itself to begin providing severance pay to workers. Nonetheless, Idelvitz says that even the current, higher hourly payments of NIS 27.5 per worker given to the contractors is inadequate and does not allow the contractor to pay all the required benefits and at the same time clear a profit.